Cosmic Tarot - 6 of Cups

tink27

This is not your typical 6 of cups of childhood memories. Instead we have a card mostly in blue of a young man and woman in a very passionate and intimate moment. This blue color reminds me of the break of dawn, just before we awaken and the most recent dreams we’ve had being recalled at that moment. The over emphasized green grass screams sensuous desires! (Is that a slipper on his foot?)

http://www.angelpaths.com/decks/cosmic/cups/sixofcups.html

The cups are of varying sizes, 5 in front and the 6th, the largest of them all, in the back. The bird flying in back of this dreamy card could be our spirit flying, not out of sight but definitely out of mind. The cups do not appear to be ‘stirring with emotion’ which tells me one of these people are recalling and remembering a passionate and intimate moment that would make any heart beat fiercely.

In the sacredness of our own private thoughts, we have retreated into a world of watery emotion, that is near and dear to our hearts but which the descending cups tell me is and has been long lost. Perhaps they did love each other…once. The woman shows hardly any emotion in the card, but she isn’t protesting either to this man’s gentle kiss.

I also wonder if this is one of those private moments when we are married to someone else but project our own most deepest feelings and sexual desires onto another and cling secretly to this illusion.

One more thing….could this dream, this thought, this recall, make us realize we’ve been away from this person for an immeasurable length of time…and feeling remorseful, we feel it’s time to go and explain what happened back then?

tink :love:
 

flyingwind66

wow that's not what I interpret at all lol

I always thought he was 'whispering' into her ear and she was contemplating his words in a sort of "mmmm, of course" way.

They also seem like they are schemers. They are both planning something devious.
 

Myrrha

This is another Six, another card that in terms of kabbalah is in Tipareth. Tipareth is in the middle of the tree, like a heart or a sun with the other spheres as planets going around it. This position right in the middle makes it very balanced. It also has a special relationship with Kether, the most sublime "crown" sphere. All of this makes it an especially beneficial sphere and the sixes are very positive cards as a result.

The Six of Cups is called Pleasure and the astrological attribution is Sun in Scorpio. The Sun feels at home in Tipareth as this is the sephirot associated with it, so its already positive influence becomes even more beneficial. Because this is a Six, it is the best aspect of Scorpio that is in play here: sensual and pleasure-seeking but not debauched or obsessive. The Six of Cups indicates a high degree of pleasure and the best of emotions, and this can especially mean fulfilling romantic and sexual relationships.

This makes me wonder, A.E. Waite was using the same astrological and kabbalistic information to make his deck. So why is the Six of Cups in the Waite-Smith deck so different? The victorians idealized childhood so to Waite the highest and best emotional experience might involve the "innocence" of childhood. He might have seen sexuality, even in a loving marriage, as too "low" or crude to fit the idea of Tipareth. This is just guessing and curiosity on my part here.

The five stemmed cups on the card that go up in height convey to me the idea of things that are already good becoming better and better. The woman's face on the card looks a little wooden but I think she is tuning in to her own feelings for a moment and just feeling his kiss very deeply. Her revealing outfit and his bare chest reflect sensuality. Their faces are solemn though, they are both feeling very deeply. Her tunic is white suggesting purity. Not purity as the absence of sensuality but purity as sensuality treated reverently, without the problems that are shown in the Four and Seven of Cups.
 

sapienza

Myrrha said:
This makes me wonder, A.E. Waite was using the same astrological and kabbalistic information to make his deck. So why is the Six of Cups in the Waite-Smith deck so different? The victorians idealized childhood so to Waite the highest and best emotional experience might involve the "innocence" of childhood. He might have seen sexuality, even in a loving marriage, as too "low" or crude to fit the idea of Tipareth. This is just guessing and curiosity on my part here.
I understand that Waite took into consideration Etteilla's divinatory meanings as well and in many cases tried to combine the two. Etteilla links the Six of Cups to 'The Past'. The Golden Dawn title is 'Pleasure'. I think Waite's depiction shows the children to attempt to incorporate both of these meanings.

tink27 said:
In the sacredness of our own private thoughts, we have retreated into a world of watery emotion, that is near and dear to our hearts but which the descending cups tell me is and has been long lost.
Interesting how this card can be interpeted so many different ways. :) I have always seen the cups as ascending. Given that the Golden Dawn see this card as the 'Lord of Pleasure' I imagine the cups represent the increasing connection between the two. I take them to be suggestive of where the current scene could perhaps lead. It does seem a very intimate card depicting a tender moment between two souls. In saying all that I find it quite difficult to interpret if it comes up in a reading.
 

Pam O

This card certainly seems to come up with a variety of meanings with the different readings I've done so far. I'm pretty new with this deck, but this card has come up fairly consistantly. hmmmm. And that sure is a sexy little outfit she is wearing. This seems to have a variety of potential meanings depending on the reading situation. For example, her face: is she bored or dreamy?

Maybe the man is saying something to the woman that she does not believe? If she doesn't believe him, maybe she is not really paying attention to what he is saying?

Or maybe she is daydreaming about what he is saying? Maybe she is having a dreamy little fantasy as he whispers in her ear?

He has one knee on the ground, which reminds me of a marriage proposal. Or maybe he is not saying anything at all, just giving her a little kiss on the cheek?
 

crazy raven

This six of cups is so very different from other tarot decks.

In the Cosmic Tarot book by Jean Huets it quotes.....

"The lovers at the lake are dreaming. Each is the fantasy of the other, with features drawn from real-life lovers of the past, adored but unattainable present-day persons, pop or film stars, music, poetry, and whatever else feeds the romantic fancy. They do not actually touch each other, even in the "kiss." All is in the realm of what-might-be."

The book also says this card represents innocent dreams of love and romance.

The 'boy' in the six of cups appears to be in his mid-adolescence..hormones are chaotic at this time. The woman appears older, perhaps early twenties and doesn't seem to be really interested in getting romantically entangled.

Pam O said:
Or maybe she is daydreaming about what he is saying? Maybe she is having a dreamy little fantasy as he whispers in her ear?

I find her look more impersonal...superficial...closed off..almost as if she really isn't there.

sapienza said:
In saying all that I find it quite difficult to interpret if it comes up in a reading.

I agree....