rachelcat
3 down, 75 to go!
10 of Cups – Satiety
10 loving cups are shown in a tree of life arrangement. Lotus stems form the paths. Behind the top 3 cups is a huge stylized flower on top of the stems.
Water shoots out straight from the top cup to cups 2 – 8. It overflows from 6 into 9 and 10. 6, 9, and 10 all overflow to and out the bottom of the card.
I’m pretty sure that in this deck the straighter the flow and the more water (overflowing) means something good and happy. All of these cups send out straight flow and three overflow. So far so good. But the book says the cups are unstable. Hmmm. The ones on the outer pillars ARE tilted a bit.
Duquette quotes Crowley’s letter to Harris saying the background should be menacing. It’s kind of a dull, angry orange that looks kind of yucky (yes, an artistic technical term!) with the dull gold of the cups and dark red stems. Angry and yucky = menacing, I guess.
Since the title of the card is Satiety, I think we are supposed to see 10 very much as the completion of a cycle, or worldliness. The idea is that when we get everything we think we’ve wanted, it doesn’t make us happy for long. That’s the nature of things, even if the things are relationships, jobs, status, etc. The standard Buddhist idea of dukka. Things can’t make us happy, only freedom from illusion can make us truly happy.
I know I can explain this better, but I’m sure you’ve heard it all before. It’s in the Bible: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven.”
I often think of the car example. (Significant today because my son was just in a fender-bender!) I hope and wish and pray and save and wheedle to get a car. If I had a car, my life would be complete. Now I have a car. I have to buy gas. I have to pay for parking. I have to maintain it. I have to worry about somebody running into it when it’s parked. (What happened to my son’s car!) I have to pay for insurance. And guess what? Now that I have a car, it’s just a tool I use. What would REALLY make my life complete is a _____.
Crowley: “Constantly it is discovered that, having got everything that one wanted, one did not want it after all; now one must pay.”
Duquette: “The cups have runneth over and are staining the carpet.”
However, I don’t really see this in the card, which Crowley also wrote to Harris: “The morbid hunger which springs from surfeit. The craving of a drug addict.” I don’t see harsh, desperate craving, simply that craving when happiness with today’s gain (new deck in the mail!) wears off, I try to repeat or increase the effect again (buy some more) with the same unsatisfactory result.
So, happiness, but ending, short-lived happiness.
Now Mars in Pisces. The sign for Mars is very prominently displayed on cup number 1. I couldn’t see Pisces for anything. I thought it got cut off in the trim, but with my magnifying glass, I see it’s on cup number 10, veiled by spilling water.
Crowley is very severe: Pisces is “stagnant”; Mars is “violent.” (But Pisces is also “peaceful and spiritualized” in contrast to Mar as “gross, violent, and disruptive.”) Obviously bad news.
Snuffin is a bit more optimistic: “The sigil of Mars is placed on the cup in Kether, bringing out the planet’s highest and most spiritual qualities.” This sounds promising. “The fiery force of Mars can be used not only to energize the placidity and stagnation of Pisces, but also to provide the momentum needed to move the wheel of the Zodiac from Pisces into Aries.” So maybe instead of representing simply wallowing in satiety and dissatisfaction, 10 of Cups also shows a way out, by working up some momentum to start a new way of doing things.
Key Words for Astrology: “Fights for peace.” Contrast enough for us? “Wins through apparent yielding.” We get what we want but we’re still not happy? “Unpredictable energies that often burn out with no effect.” Once again, we put a lot of energy into getting something, and then we react to it much differently than we thought we would. “Extremely sensitive to pain.” Ouch!
As a card of the day: On Friday I worked on my first card study, which was great, but there were 77 cards to go! And I was already 2 cards behind at that point! And I often think about how great it would be to get a few extra days off, and we only had 3 days of work, and it was blah, so what. But I have been able to get enough sleep and rest because of it. Maybe that’s Mars energy helping me through.
In a reading: This is a card of happiness. You will get what you’ve been wanting. But beware of complacency and/or greediness. Remember to be thankful for what you have. And think about whether the things you want are things that are good for you and others.
10 of Cups – Satiety
10 loving cups are shown in a tree of life arrangement. Lotus stems form the paths. Behind the top 3 cups is a huge stylized flower on top of the stems.
Water shoots out straight from the top cup to cups 2 – 8. It overflows from 6 into 9 and 10. 6, 9, and 10 all overflow to and out the bottom of the card.
I’m pretty sure that in this deck the straighter the flow and the more water (overflowing) means something good and happy. All of these cups send out straight flow and three overflow. So far so good. But the book says the cups are unstable. Hmmm. The ones on the outer pillars ARE tilted a bit.
Duquette quotes Crowley’s letter to Harris saying the background should be menacing. It’s kind of a dull, angry orange that looks kind of yucky (yes, an artistic technical term!) with the dull gold of the cups and dark red stems. Angry and yucky = menacing, I guess.
Since the title of the card is Satiety, I think we are supposed to see 10 very much as the completion of a cycle, or worldliness. The idea is that when we get everything we think we’ve wanted, it doesn’t make us happy for long. That’s the nature of things, even if the things are relationships, jobs, status, etc. The standard Buddhist idea of dukka. Things can’t make us happy, only freedom from illusion can make us truly happy.
I know I can explain this better, but I’m sure you’ve heard it all before. It’s in the Bible: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven.”
I often think of the car example. (Significant today because my son was just in a fender-bender!) I hope and wish and pray and save and wheedle to get a car. If I had a car, my life would be complete. Now I have a car. I have to buy gas. I have to pay for parking. I have to maintain it. I have to worry about somebody running into it when it’s parked. (What happened to my son’s car!) I have to pay for insurance. And guess what? Now that I have a car, it’s just a tool I use. What would REALLY make my life complete is a _____.
Crowley: “Constantly it is discovered that, having got everything that one wanted, one did not want it after all; now one must pay.”
Duquette: “The cups have runneth over and are staining the carpet.”
However, I don’t really see this in the card, which Crowley also wrote to Harris: “The morbid hunger which springs from surfeit. The craving of a drug addict.” I don’t see harsh, desperate craving, simply that craving when happiness with today’s gain (new deck in the mail!) wears off, I try to repeat or increase the effect again (buy some more) with the same unsatisfactory result.
So, happiness, but ending, short-lived happiness.
Now Mars in Pisces. The sign for Mars is very prominently displayed on cup number 1. I couldn’t see Pisces for anything. I thought it got cut off in the trim, but with my magnifying glass, I see it’s on cup number 10, veiled by spilling water.
Crowley is very severe: Pisces is “stagnant”; Mars is “violent.” (But Pisces is also “peaceful and spiritualized” in contrast to Mar as “gross, violent, and disruptive.”) Obviously bad news.
Snuffin is a bit more optimistic: “The sigil of Mars is placed on the cup in Kether, bringing out the planet’s highest and most spiritual qualities.” This sounds promising. “The fiery force of Mars can be used not only to energize the placidity and stagnation of Pisces, but also to provide the momentum needed to move the wheel of the Zodiac from Pisces into Aries.” So maybe instead of representing simply wallowing in satiety and dissatisfaction, 10 of Cups also shows a way out, by working up some momentum to start a new way of doing things.
Key Words for Astrology: “Fights for peace.” Contrast enough for us? “Wins through apparent yielding.” We get what we want but we’re still not happy? “Unpredictable energies that often burn out with no effect.” Once again, we put a lot of energy into getting something, and then we react to it much differently than we thought we would. “Extremely sensitive to pain.” Ouch!
As a card of the day: On Friday I worked on my first card study, which was great, but there were 77 cards to go! And I was already 2 cards behind at that point! And I often think about how great it would be to get a few extra days off, and we only had 3 days of work, and it was blah, so what. But I have been able to get enough sleep and rest because of it. Maybe that’s Mars energy helping me through.
In a reading: This is a card of happiness. You will get what you’ve been wanting. But beware of complacency and/or greediness. Remember to be thankful for what you have. And think about whether the things you want are things that are good for you and others.
