Bohemian Gothic Page of Cups

swimming in tarot

With the idea of character progression in mind, I'm looking at the Page of Cups and wondering if she may not be an older version of the little girl in the Ten of Cups. In the Scariest Card thread, it was Cat who was sure that the kids in the Ten would show up on Dr. Freud's couch in a few years, and that the Page was heading to the river to drown herself. The little girl in the Ten seems cut out of the family. Fed and clothed and given toys with which to amuse herself, but ignored, possibly in favour of a boy, a male heir.

At first I didn't think much about the Page, but let's have a look. She is descending an outdoor staircase, picturesquely overgrown with ivy, wearing a dark blue outfit reminiscent of a sailor suit, decorated with a wavy white trim. She carries a tiny beaded purse, I'll say pearly-beaded, and looks into the distance off the edge of the card with a haunted expression, lost in her own little world. Indeed, she seems about to walk off the edge of the card. She has on a red hair-bow. The card is a beautiful composition of vertical symmetry: the other side of the card is taken up by a finial at the bottom of the staircase; a huge urn/seashell shaped sculpture with the head of a water sprite on it, whose blue eyes follow the girl with a speculative expression!

Let's see. She's walking away from a place that's smothering and choking, if the ivy is a hint. There is tumult in her mind, if that's not reading too much into the red hair ribbon. She is aligned with water, by her blue dress with its wavy trim, and its mother-of-pearl buttons. She is outside, descending the stairs like a sinking spirit; going downhill like water; downwards, where any body of water will be found. It looks like she's packed up her self-esteem in that tiny little flat purse, and is going to the free-moving, all-accepting water...already there, in her mind, her body is just catching up, stepping out of the card, waterward, while the water sprite speculates that she will soon be sleeping with the fishes.
 

Thirteen

swimming in tarot said:
She is aligned with water, by her blue dress with its wavy trim, and its mother-of-pearl buttons. She is outside, descending the stairs like a sinking spirit; going downhill like water; downwards, where any body of water will be found. It looks like she's packed up her self-esteem in that tiny little flat purse, and is going to the free-moving, all-accepting water...already there, in her mind, her body is just catching up, stepping out of the card, waterward, while the water sprite speculates that she will soon be sleeping with the fishes.
I like this analysis and agree with a lot of it. The ivy and leaves are very like water or waves flowing down. And you're right, there's a lot of water elements from the sailor suit, seashells, and such. The water spite on the urn is definitely "aware" and knows something.

In most decks the Page of Cups is the most inward looking, dreamy poetic. And this page most certainly looks very floaty.