spoonbender said:
but I was by no means saying that you should always see the Six of Cups as meaning child abuse or something sinister. I even think the interpretation of Mary K. Greer is a bit far-going
'Fair nuff, no problem. Oh, and thanks for the blow-up of the card. My image was too small to see the details. You're right, the girl does have a hand under her scarf. Perhaps pressing it to her heart as the boy notices her, and her heart palpatates with puppy love? Just a thought given that this card, as someone says, relates to the Lovers card.
Also, it looks as if the boy isn't going to give her the cup of flowers so much as offer it to her to smell. He seems to be smelling it himself. Maybe the conversation went something like, "Here, take a look at these. Aren't they pretty? Smell nice too."
The guard seems to be strolling along, no enemies in sight, just daily guard duty, or so it seems to me. Heading on his way to the guard tower there. He's interesting in a couple of ways. First, carrying the spear away from the children emphasizes, to me, that this is a cups card--peace, emotions, cups are in the foreground. Spears (war, fire) are relegated to the background. Were he close, the little boy would be more intersted in the guard, the fighter and warrior--and this card would be about learning how to fight, not learning how to love/care. With the guard away, the boy can turn his attentions to the girl. Also we have that opposition, the adult with the spear, the boy with the flowers. This emphasizes the innocence of the boy (too young to fight, and, in fact, young enough to sniff flowers without fear of seeming unmanly).
The second intreguing thing about the guard is that the guard's presence (and that watch tower) suggests that the children are in the courtyard of a castle, not as I originally thought, in a village. The castle gardens perhaps? A
very protected childhood indeed. Rather reminds me of the story of Buddha, raised in a castle where everything was pretty and beautiful, protected at all costs from any ugliness in the world.
Of course, the upshot of that story is that one day he sees an old man, realizes the world does not stay young and beautiful, and heads out to learn and be enlightened. All of which goes along very well with the "moment in Eden" view of the card. A time of being protected, maybe overly so, of love (if we're interpeting it as love) at it's most innocent. A sweet time, but fleeting, and that's for the best. Growth doesn't happen in a vacume.
