The W on the Ace of Cups

The "W" is a letter in the Greek alphabet. It is representative of the Omega. The card holds symbolism from Renaissance art.
****ETA: I got my source from the book, Signs & Symbols In Christian Art by George Ferguson, written in 1954. Ferguson was a Rector of Saint Philip's In the Hills Episcopal Parish in Tuscon, Arizona.****

Blessed be,
Lady Marian

Im glad I stumbled across this topic. I was just wikipediaing this card to find this out myself, but with no luck. I figured it would be easy to find out, just like the letters on the pillars of the high priestess.

Even though the concrete definition has yet to be discovered, im fascinated on all the different takes everyone has on this. I wish I could be of service.

a number of theories point to the Grail being stored in the basement of the Roslyn Chapel


But seriously, Waite was a Mason and a Rosicrucian (much commonality between both)

His deck is chock full of Masonic and Rosicrucian images.

Example, High Priestess sits between the twin pillars of Boaz and Jachin.

And that's just the start of the deck.

Hi, Hiram. I agree.
W could be a reference to the widow / Miriam? Chalice / Grail to Womb?
HP (maybe 8 of Cups too?) -> Royal Arch?
Fascinating, isn't it?!

The location of a masonic Lodge is sometimes referrred to as the "widowed mother". i.e. "My widowed mother is in *location*".

Bee.

How fascinating Bee!
There ya go- Peace and Communion at the Lodge (Ma's Place)

Seriously though that is a very Catholic card- the most Catholic of the lot.

That card is Christian Mysticism or Catholic Waite-ism at it's most symbolic.

I do not know what words Waite would have used when celebrating Mass-

This is the cup of thy salvation.. springs to mind.

~Rosanne

Moonbow* said:

Its not often I peep into this forum but Ross gave me an idea to play with the images he has shown us (see post 8), his discovery seems very likely to me and fits in with Frank Hall's post:

http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/2636/picture4va.png

http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/5759/picture5wf.png

http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/699/picture6su.png

Not sure what all this means but maybe it will raise some more discussion, (and apologies for my amateur drawing skills with Neodraw)

Click to expand...

I hope I may resurrect this topic from the dead?

I think this is a great discovery to an important clue. This suggests to me "As above so below" - Waite's Hermeticism as shown in the card of the "M" Magician: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermeticism#As_above.2C_so_below which refers to as macrocosm so microcosm, i.e., what is in us is in the Divine (the collective or all around us or outside of us).

The ritual of Holy Communion, which represents an act of connecting soul with Spirit (in Vedic terms - small self with Greater Self; in Hermetic terms - microcosmos with macrocosmos) is the overall "situation" of this card.

So how can we connect these things? Is the power of the magician now seen in macrocosmic terms - i.e., the powers of the collective streaming into us through the five senses in an experience of Holy Communion through the vehicle of the emotions (cups)? What do you all think?

Uma said:

I hope I may resurrect this topic from the dead?

Click to expand...

Here at Aeclectic, we welcome resurrecting threads from the dead. No need to reinvent the wheel here.

I agree with you, Uma.

I’m going to have to go with the idea that it’s a reversed M for Mass. Waite: “Divinatory Meanings: . . . Holy Table, felicity [t]hereof.” (Although M for Munsalvaesche makes sense too.)

If it’s M for Mass, the interesting thing is, as someone here has mentioned, that it looks like an M to the dove, or to the One who sent the dove, suggesting, perhaps, the meaning to God of the mass or the reason that He established the mass--to symbolize and increase mutual love and fellowship (communion) with the people He created. Which I think goes well with the emotional connotations of the cups suit.

As in Wolfram’s Parzival: Even though Parzival didn’t know the right question to ask, leaving the king unhealed and the land sick, the dove still came every day to rejuvenate the power of the grail. God was reaching out to people over and over, even if they didn’t know exactly what to do with that great gift.

So do you think “It is an intimation of that which may lie behind the Lesser Arcana” means that what is behind the “Lesser Arcana” is the love of God for his creation and his desire to be in relationship with us? Maybe that He is present in all the “lesser” details of life, as well as the “major” events and ideas?

Two side notes:

1. Waite says, “from which four streams are pouring.” There are clearly five streams on the card. Making me ask why four? And why five? I always assumed five streams for the five senses, humans’ connection between their body and the rest of the world, therefore the origin of emotions. Four for the four elements? That doesn’t have quite the same connection to emotions that I can see.

2. A bit off-topic, but I guess it relates to the symbolism of the cup of the mass and the grail. Does anyone know why Catholic laypeople usually only receive the wafer and not the wine? I’ve only been to a few Catholic masses, most conducted by monks. (My son went to a Benedictine high school.) The monks (most or all ordained priests) drink from the cup and take the wafer, and then the laypeople take the wafer. Why? Most (all?) Protestant laypeople take both. (I always wanted to know that. I hope it doesn’t hijack the thread!)

Hi Rachelcat,

All that you said is thought provoking but this especially (below) is profound:

rachelcat said:

So do you think “It is an intimation of that which may lie behind the Lesser Arcana” means that what is behind the “Lesser Arcana” is the love of God for his creation and his desire to be in relationship with us? Maybe that He is present in all the “lesser” details of life, as well as the “major” events and ideas?

Click to expand...