Tarot Art Nouveau - 10 of Chalices

Pictured on the 10 of cups are two women figures. One is blonde wearing a purple dress and is sitting. The other woman has dark hair and is standing in front of the other woman. They are both reaching overhead, possible for the irises that are above them. The blonde is reaching with her right hand, the dark haired woman with her left hand. The two gowns are quite flowing and are tangled together. The blonde seems to be sitting on the dark haired woman's dress, while her dress is wrapping around her. There appears to be some kind of bird in the the two upper corners of the card. I'm not sure that they are, but they could be turkeys or another bird with large tail feathers, like a peacock. There is no color so it is hard to tell what kind of bird it is. Irises fill the background of the picture. I feel that this card is about struggle, not a violent one, but one about power nevertheless. The flower seems to be the blondes and the dark hard woman is trying to get it away from the blonde. She's not successeding very well since the blonde is holding the flower a little out of reach of her grasp. The blonde seems to be the more passive of the two figures. She knows she has the power and doesn't need to put forth too much engery in order to keep it away from the dark haired woman.

Irises mean friendship, so I think the power struggles are the ones that people encounter in their friendships.

I think the women are playing some sort of game. To me they are emotionally entangled. I have a hard time reading this card as a power struggle, so I guess some sort of playful entanglement is about as close as I can get to a struggle. I feel like they are reaching for the skies, or even, funnily enough, it reminds me of a kiss under the mistletoe. It seems very intimate to me, the way they are gazing at eachother.

Ambrosia said:

I think the women are playing some sort of game. To me they are emotionally entangled. I have a hard time reading this card as a power struggle, so I guess some sort of playful entanglement is about as close as I can get to a struggle. I feel like they are reaching for the skies, or even, funnily enough, it reminds me of a kiss under the mistletoe. It seems very intimate to me, the way they are gazing at eachother.

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I guess struggle is a bad word for what I'm thinking. A better one would be upperhand, in a good way. I thinking about the balance in relationships. Someone is in control, whether the people in the relationship know it or not. It's usually something subtle. Like the friend that does all the work in the relationship, the one that calls the other all the time, ect. I also see the card as playful, but the blonde still has the upperhand in the game.

Do you think this card has any similarities to a traditional 10 of cups in that its about emotional fulfillment, love, happiness, completion, success and so on?

Funny you should ask that. I did compare the 10 of Chalices with the RWS's 10 of Cups. I don't have my notes with me, they are on my home computer, so I can't get into the details that I picked up on. But I do see the 10 of Cups as success, fulfillment and so. But I also see it as just on the surface of the situtation. The two adults have their backs to us, so do we really know what's going on? Are they really successful or is it just the appearance of success? I guess I'm being pessimistic about life right now and it's showing in my take on the cards.