78 Weeks: Ace of Cups

To find out what these threads refer to, please seeThe link above provides suggested dates and links to all threads for this study.

Some amongst us may be working through the deck in a different order, and using different decks.

For more general comments or questions about the 78 weeks, please post in the thread linked above.

Enjoy!

the ace

this ace is the seat of the mind and the emotions. it can indicate the stability or instability of the mind set, as well as a situation that would cause such a disturbance.

Ace of Cups

To co-incide with my study of the Ace of Cups, I am following Major Tom's inspired idea of creating a card as I go with this study

I have used the Universal Waite (PCS) artwork as the style inspiration for this card.

A hand coming out of the clouds holding a cup, symbolising something 'out of the blue' or a special gift. The cup is brimming and overflowing with clear, blue water representing a surge of fresh feelings and emotions. There are five streams flowing from the Cup into the water below, representing the five senses of which we enjoy the world around us. In the water below there are water lilies blooming upon which the streams of water gently splash down, representing the beauty that comes from emotional growth.

Thinking further on the hand coming from the clouds offering this flowing Cup, as in all the Aces of the Minors, it is like a new opportunity that is being offered by our world. In the case of the Ace of Cups, a new love or emotional situation that is the beginning of a new life experience to let our feelings flow out. A time to listen to our heart and be aware of the love around us and within us. Being in touch with our emotions and intuition and opening up ourselves to others and new relationships.

CreativeFire

I have attached my version of the Ace of Cups below. The rest of the deck in progress can be seen at Creative Fire Tarot.

Re: Ace of Cups

CreativeFire said:

To co-incide with my study of the Ace of Cups, I am following Major Tom's inspired idea of creating a card as I go with this study

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I'd want to encourage everyone to give it a go - that is create a card as part of your study. I'm really glad to see you take it up CreativeFire. I like your card too.

One of the things I really like about the Aces in the Tarot of Marseilles is that the cards don't have any titles or numbers. It is pretty obvious even so that they are Aces. In fact, with the Ace of Cups, there's a remarkable similarity between the 6 different versions I've been able to study. Only the Lo Scarabeo Burdel displays any differences and these are so many that it looks like a different cup altogether.

Another thing about the Aces is that I don't find any significant variations in the meanings of the cards when compared with the meanings I learned with my RWS upbringing. For the Ace of Cups I like what R.T. Kaser says, "blessings from out of the blue".

In my quest to create a Marseilles dipicting the characters in modern clothing, cards without people don't present the challenge of deciding what they should wear. These cards present an entirely different sort of challenge. I attach my version:

Radiant Rider-Waite

Ace of Cups

LWB
The waters are beneath, upon which are water lilies. The hand issues from the cloud, holding in its palm th cup, from which four streams are pouring. A dove, bearing in its bill a cross-marked host, descends to place the water in the cup - the dew of water is falling on all sides. It is an intimation of that which may lie behind the Lesser Arcana.
Divinatory Meaning
House of the true heart, joy, content, abode, nourishment, abundance, fertility, holy table and felicity hereof.

My Impressions
The dove indicates peace and love. Actually when you look at what the cup looks like and the disc the dove is holding in its beak represents, and well the dove itself. all these symbols can be seen to be religiously inspired. Here you have the cup where you could drink the wind form during a communion, and the, oh I don't know what it is called but it represents bread can all be taken back to religion. Where you have the communion indicating your devotion to God.

Usually Ace indicates the beginnings of something. So this would indicate the beginning of new emotions, whre maybe you have come across a situation just recently which you love and you h ave great passion for, or even a person. In which case, this indicates that if the appropriate amount of time, energy and attention put into his then this could develop into something. But at the same time it could indicate someone who would always start things, without bringing to completion something before being on the lookout for something new.

The cup itself has little bells on it, so along with the four streams coming from the cup, indicating a fountain could be seen as the five sense. So, in this case it can be seen as the pleasing and indulging of the senses, so in the hearing, seeing, touching, smelling and tasting. Seen in that context it could indicate someone who likes to seek to satisfy the desires of the senses. So, in this card you can have two conflicting things, so there is a sense that there could be an indication of new feelings or a new relationship, but then it can be seen that it may not be a long lasting one or at least not one with someone who is going to be faithful as this indicates someone who will always be looking for physical gratification and satisfying the urges.

Since there is a dove in the card, then this indicates love, so this could indicate the development of love of some sort. This could either be in the platonic, romantic or spiritual love. More than likely it could indicate the beginning of the feelings of self-love.

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Golden Tarot of Klimt

Ace of Chalices

LWB
Harmony, new love and material goods

My Impressions
The thing about this card I find interesting is that even though the couple are in an embrace what can be viewed as very contrasting signals or body language. The woman who has her arms around the man, eyes closed looking like she is just about to be kissed, wanting intimacy, on the other hand, he is kind of holding back, but there is a sense that it may not be of a romantic nature but for physical gratification. The woman is lighter in colour and the man is the duller colour, so in some sense it could be viewed as the contasting aspects of ourselves. For example, there is the part which is all for it, willing to put everything into it and h ave total trust in the other person, whereas the other one could be seen as being a bit stand offish. How to view that in an overall picture, I really don't know.

The fact that the woman has her eyes closed could indicate that in some instances that love is really blind. They are so in to the relationship, that they fail to notice little things that could indicate that things are not as they should be. But on the other hand it could be taken to extreme, where one person may be overly vigilant and may actually make mountains out of mole hills. So, in that context, a somewhere in between would probably be the best and healthiest way to be.

In the background there are roses growing. Roses indicate romance. Sure they may be beautiful to look at and to smell, but they do have thorns, and can hurt if not careful or alert in a round about way. Again, showing the double sided nature of some people, if not most, where they are quite lovign but they can turn on you and hurt you if you are not careful.

Ace of Cups - Revelations Tarot

First impressions
This card is gorgeous.

From the book
Upright
The cup overflows with joy, happiness, and friendships.
The Ace of Cups embodies the birth of emotional happiness, joy, and loving and caring relationships. Self-expression, creativity, and the urge to be a part of life will be projected from within. Inspiration will come from the heart, and your mind will be flooded with dreams and fantasies. Matters of love will be paramount and affairs of the heart will be predominant.
Around you will be participation in meaningful projects, evocative endeavors, passion, and great emotional rapport with workmates and friends. Relationships will blossom between those who open their hearts and express their feelings freely, which includes the possibility of the birth of new life.

Reversed
The contents have spilled as the cup empties. The vessel only represents what there could have been.
There is a sense of emptiness within you. You may feel drained and emotionally exhausted. Love affairs may be ending, traumas may have been experienced, or difficult situations have had you in a spin. Creative self-expression may also be difficult as you find yourself scraping the bottom of the barrel. Your mind is filled with unattainable fantasies and dreams that you waste time chasing.
In situations, the atmosphere around you feels like a vacuum emotionally. Colleagues and partners will seem distracted and uncaring, lethargic, or even drained. Relationships will be strained and people's attentions seem to wander.

Images and Symbolism
The ornateness of the cup represents the preciousness of the vessel. The vessel itself holds water, a metaphor for the emotions. The vessel is much like the body: precious in its own right and beautiful in the eye of the beholder. Inside it holds the emotions of the being, both good and bad.
Color. deep blues, associated with the element water.

Traditional meanings
Upright:
Nourishment, protection, fertility, fruitfulness; faithfulness and deep feelings. May include marriage and motherhood.

Reversed:
Barrenness, lost love, des[pair, loss of faith

My impressions:
Upright
An overflowing golden goblet with jewelled panels. The stem is a merman holding up the bowl; this is reflected in a pool of liquid on the ground. Fluid rises from the cup and also flows over the rim. The background is swirly blues and purples.
Reversed
A curious impression – almost as though the same cup has withered. Liquid is dribbling into it and straight over the edges as if it cannot hold it, and the stem seems carried through the bowl and sticks blurrily out of the top.

My take
I loved this card when I first met it. I even nominated it as the ultimate Ace of Cups ion a poll. But I’ve gone right off it since I reversed it and really looked at that. For some reason I now cannot get the image of the cup that cannot gold liquid within it out of my mind. The background is gorgeous. But now – even upright I am conscious that even in the greatest joy there is the hint of disappointment and sorrow. So if I were reading this upright – I’d say this signifies joy and fulfilment, but you must make every effort to take care of what makes you so happy, as everything carries the seed of its own destruction and it may not last. (I guess that might not be such a bad thing to say !)
Reversed – if I drew that I would be really depressed. All lost, nothing seems to work, and seeing the joy of others around you makes it worse. I’d advise a total rethink of the querent’s position.

All the cards from this deck can be viewed here.

Card name: Ace of Cups

First impressions
A large blue iridescent loving cup (with the two handles) in the centre of a lotus flower – all rising from water, with a ray of light splashing into it from above and water overflowing. Around it all what looks like sort of folds of a multicoloured spider web above, reflected in the water below. There appears to be a GOAT emblem on the front of the cup.
From the Book of Thoth

THE FOUR ACES

The Aces represent the roots of the four elements. They are quite above, and distinct from, the other small cards in the same way as Kether is said to be symbolized only by the topmost point of the Yod of Tetragrammaton. In these cards is no real manifestation of the element in its material form. They form a link between the small cards and the Princesses, who rule the Heavens around the North Pole. The Meridian is the Great Pyramid, and the Elements rule, going Eastward, in the order of Tetragrammaton, Fire, Water, Air, Earth. Thus, roughly, Aces-Princesses Wands cover Asia, Cups the Pacific Ocean, Swords the Americas, Disks Europe and Africa. To make this relationship clear, one may go a little into the symbol of the pentagram, or Shield of David. It represents Spirit ruling the four elements, and is thus a symbol of the Triumph of Man.

The idea of the element of Spirit is very difficult to grasp. The letter Shin, which is the letter of Fire, has to do double duty by representing Spirit as well. Generally speaking, the attributions of Spirit are not clear and simple like those of the other elements. It is very remarkable that the Tablet of Spirit in the Enochian system is the key to all mischief; as, in the Hindu system, Akasha is the Egg of Darkness.

On the other hand, Spirit represents Kether. Perhaps it was never in the mind of the Exempt Adept or Adepts who invented the Tarot to go so far into this matter. The point to remember is that, both in their appearance and in their meaning, the Aces are not the elements themselves, but the seeds of those elements.

ACE OF CUPS

This card represents the element of Water in its most secret and original form. It is the feminine complement of the Ace of Wands, and is derived from the Yoni and the Moon exactly as that is from the Lingam and the Sun. The third in the Hierarchy. This accordingly represents the essential form of the Holy Grail. Upon the dark sea of Binah, the Great Mother, are Lotuses, two in one, which fill the cup with the Life-fluid, symbolically represented either as Water, as Blood, or as Wine, according to the selected purpose of the symbolism. This being a primordial card, the liquid is shown as water; it can be transformed into Wine or Blood as may be required.

Above the Cup, descending upon it, is the Dove of the Holy Ghost, thus consecrating the element.

At the base of the Cup is the Moon, for it is the virtue of this card to conceive and to produce the second form of its Nature.

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Images and Symbolism
Frieda Harris says in her essays:

Ace of Cups=the element of Water in its secret and original form. It is the feminine compliment (sic) of the Ace of Wands. This is a primordial card in the essential form of the Holy Grail.

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Also:

Ace of Cups.
This is the heart of the element of water and love. It is the Holy Grail receiving the impress of divine inspiration.

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DuQuette says this is a “stunning and vivid image of the cosmic Yoni.. It is the Holy Grail, and the scallops of light above here are echoed in the Princess of Cups’s dress. He sees the handles as being entwined serpents – I can see ONE serpent head, but it isn’t hugely obvious that this was the intent ?
He also points out that what I saw as a goat with horns on the cup is three interlaced rings – “representative of the three Aeons of Isis, Osiris and Horus” – as shown also on the Hierophant’s wand and says that one can only speculate as to why Harris was moved to apply this symbol to the cup.”
I have to say that it had not occurred to me that the light from above was the Holy Ghost till I read what Crowley had to say. Strangely Snuffin has it as the white brilliance of Kether in Briah. He also points out that in the Old Aeon, the Cup represented the Holy Grail, but in the New Aeon it is the Cup of Babalon – the womb of all life.
He too refers to the background as being seashell like, “symbolic of life beneath the water”, and points out it is reflected in the Great Sea of Binah.
Banzhaf refers to the card as the source of the soul – which I rather like. It is the female match to the Ace of Wands. The fact that the cup is “open” symbolise loving openness, and the ray of light symbolises the creative spirit – we have here a very sexual image, then. Crowley himself equates the grail with the highest good attainable by human beings.

Meaning (cribbed from Wasserman) The Root of the Powers of Water. Fertility. Productiveness. Beauty. Pleasure and happiness.
DuQuetteIt symbolises Fertility – productiveness, beauty, pleasure, happiness, etc.
Traditional meanings – From Thirteen’s book of meanings:

Ace of Cups
West/Fall
Emotions rising up for new love. This usually indicates that the querent is feeling a new welling of emotion or beginning to have some vivid dreams. They're not writing the poetry yet, but they feel the desire to, or they may have caught sight of a figure across a room and felt a tug at their heart, or even passed by some holy place and felt the spirit yearning. They've lifted the cup and they want to drink from it.

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My impressions (appearance of the card):
Some say this is the most beautiful card in the deck. I can’t agree, myself. This may be from using my greenie, but the colours don’t entirely appeal. But the “shell like” (I have bought into that !) background is very lovely. The reflection is surprisingly un-water-like; I was disappointed in it as “sea” ! It is a very sexual image; a phallus and a vagina. it seems to be very much rising out of the water coming towards the light, rather than floating at all. I am not sure if the light in the reflection is supposed to be a reflection as such… The two small light-reflections on either side of the cup itself look like eyes staring out of the card. It’s rather un-nerving.
My take (what I make of it/what I might see in a reading where I drew it)
It is so very sexual, I might see it as suggesting pregnancy. Certainly as burgeoning creation and growth. I would also have trouble seeing a negative side to this one.