The Wild Unkown Tarot - Daughter of Cups

Sulis

The Court Cards in this deck are represented by animals and I really like that Kim Krans has done them this way - it gives the deck a very earthy, shamanistic feel that I like.

The suit of Cups / Water / emotions and feelings is represented by the Swan.

The Daughter of Cups is the most immature court in this family; in traditional decks she would be the Page or Valet.

So on this card we have a baby swan floating on what looks to be very calm water (no colour).. Her reflection can be seen in the water and it's a rainbow reflection - absolutely beautiful.
This makes me think that she has an imagination, new feelings for something or someone and maybe even the beginnings of psychic powers but they are still beneath the surface, just emerging but not yet fully realised or discovered.
The song about the ugly duckling springs to my mind... Not that she's ugly, far from it but her feathers aren't smooth yet as they will be when she matures.
Pages and Valets carry messages so I'm associating that with this card too... She looks as if she'd love to tell you how she feels in a naive and open way.. I can see her going to her mum and dad to open her heart about something that she's feeling.

So this is new beginnings in the emotional realm.. New feelings or maybe the start of a relationship on an emotional level.
This card could also be advising you to open yourself up to what you could be feeling or to let someone else know how you feel about something but do so in an emotionally aware way... Be open and honest and take into account how your words may make someone else feel.
With the correspondences I use (a little different from the Golden Dawn correspondences), I'd say she's Air (Pages, Valets, Daughters) of Water (Cups, feelings)... She's thinking about her feelings which are below the surface and are just starting to surface. This card can also be about stilling your mind in meditation and that goes well with the swan imagery for me - calm and still on the surface but paddling underneath.

I think I'm going to have to do some research about the mythology and lore that surrounds swans.

I'd love to hear what others who have this deck think of this card.
 

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lark

You already wrote alot of what I feel about this card.
I'm used to dealing with animals as courts from using my Greenwood deck...but I remember how surprised I was at how much I liked it when I began, it is very liberating in a lot of ways.

There is a feeling of stillness to this card...like a hot summer day when you are just content to float and daydream.
The colors speak of artistic endeavors to me, so goes with my seeing this card as someone creative.
Harmony, beauty, peace.
Not someone who likes to get their feathers ruffled in a conflict of any kind.
The cup above her head brings the surprise/message element into the card for me.
Swans just a lovely way to illustrate cup court energies.

I like you're insight into how her feathers weren't as sleek yet and so bringing in the youth energy...that ugly duckling awkward stage where all our ideas are still forming.
 

Sulis

You know, I didn't even think of the cup above her head as part of the image, I just saw it as a suit label but it is part of the image, very much so, just as a cup is part of the image in the other Cups Court cards...
She can't see it yet, it's almost as if it's just behind her but it's like the rainbow reflection, just coming into her consciousness....
 

ladybird

I find Kim's use of swans for the suit of cups perfectly appropriate, besides the fact that they are waterfowl! When specifically speaking about swans as totem animals, they represent beauty, the energy of the realms of magic, and matters of the heart. In Ted Andrew's Dictionary of Bird Totems his keynotes say Awakening the true beauty and power of the self I think this fits very well here with this daughter/page.

People with swan as their totem are emotionally sensitive already and this card to me says it's the beginning of finding this energy in yourSelf and perhaps you're beginning to sense other people's feelings too. It's a perfect fit, this young swan energy with the emotional cups. Also fitting with the Page/daughter of cups is that people with swan's totem energy are generally dreamers, poets, mystics...
 

Sulis

Hi Ladybird,

Thanks for adding the info about animal symbolism... I really do need to do some reading up on that sort of stuff since I think I'll be using this deck as 'my deck' (I usually just use 1), for the foreseeable future.

From what you've said it looks as if swans are the perfect choice for the courts in the suit of Cups.. I'm thinking that all of the animals chosen seem just right to me..

That book sounds like a good one... Does he do one for animal totems too?

Edited to add: He does: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Animal-spea...0281/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1358183932&sr=8-1
 

ladybird

Hi Ladybird,

Thanks for adding the info about animal symbolism... I really do need to do some reading up on that sort of stuff since I think I'll be using this deck as 'my deck' (I usually just use 1), for the foreseeable future.

From what you've said it looks as if swans are the perfect choice for the courts in the suit of Cups.. I'm thinking that all of the animals chosen seem just right to me..

That book sounds like a good one... Does he do one for animal totems too?

Edited to add: He does: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Animal-spea...0281/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1358183932&sr=8-1

Yes, that's the book that I have that I refer to! Sorry for the confusion. The Dictionary of Bird Totems is a section of this book. It's really a fabulous book! It's not just a small superficial dictionary style book. It's a very comprehensive book (380 pages!) that goes deeper into each animal totem. For example, the section on swans is two pages and Andrews shares the history and mythology of swans as well as refers to their habits in nature. I HIGHLY recommend this book. All my friends have this book and love to it. Because of this, I sometimes think that everyone has it which is why I blindly referred to just the bird dictionary. (The book is split into different parts: birds, animals, insects and reptiles.)

If you're going to have ONE book on Totems than this is THE book.

I need to have a look at the book that comes with the Medicine cards that I haven't peeked in forever to see if they have anything on Swan. I can't remember. I haven't thought to look at the Druid Animal Oracle either to see what it says, I know it has a Swan in it. :)
 

ladybird

I also found this website which seems to have some good, information on it: http://www.whats-your-sign.com/animal-totems.html

How funny, I didn't know that she also had information on animal totems! I bumped into this website a couple years ago when I was looking for the symbolism of the Rose in tarot!! She has a great section on tarot symbols too! :) I have her page bookmarked on my Iphone for quick reference.
 

Winterchild

Daughter of Cups

This card look immediately like an old photo in an album, like parents do with their new child.... its the black corners! So it immediately made me think that this wee signet is much loved and wanted.

I saw the cup as the family insignia, the sign of belonging, but it could also be that she was born with a full cup, she just has to go round in circles until she finds it!!

Of course the tale of the Ugly Duckling has to come in, that true beauty is within, and we are often the last ones to see it within ourselves. The rainbow reflection is reflecting the life and joy ahead of this newborn, the hop that is new life.

It could be a card of transformation and rebirth, or discovering a new talent. I think it is about how others see us too, maybe someone would be discovered by someone else, or loved from afar, although they are unaware.

I so love this deck.....!!
 

Pixna

This card exudes sweetness, innocence, and naivety. The young swan looks so delicate and fragile, touchable yet sensitive. The red underneath her, being the first color, shows me that she is passionate and full of youthful energy. The other colors of the rainbow (feelings, creativity) go more deeply under the surface of the water -- they're all there, just not yet fully realized.

What Sulis said about the swan being "calm and still on the surface but paddling underneath" makes so much sense to me. This young being, covered in downy feathers, contains both the peacefulness and purity of youth along with the hidden energy that makes childhood and adolescence such a thrilling time of life.

This card is one of my favorites in this deck of so many favorites, maybe because I see some of myself reflected in these waters and in this baby swan. It makes me feel peaceful and calmer just gazing at it.

Thank you for the book suggestion and links, Ladybird and Sulis!