6 of Cups - Nostalgia

The 78th Fool

For me , this has to be one of the most mysterious and enigmatic cards in the whole deck. It evokes nostalgia for me because it's almost like stepping back through time to eavesdrop on an idyllic childhood - the wonder on the little girl's face and the gift of a golden cup filled with flowers from an admired elder brother.

However, there's also mystery, poigiancy and a touch of sadness - who is the mysterious departing figure on the left of the card ?

These are some of my thoughts. I'd love to hear other people's views on this card.

Chris. xx
 

Rusty Neon

The Golden Dawn keyword for the 6 of Cups is Pleasure, but the GD divinatory meanings make it clear that the card represents only the beginnings of pleasure. "Commencement of steady increase, gain and please, but commencement only." Thus, it's fitting that children (as the beginnings of earthly life) are depicted on the RWS card. Or are they midgets? :)

The Etteilla keywords for the 6 of Cups are the Past (upright) and the Future (reversed). As children are the future, and as we were children in the past, the depiction of children on the RWS card is again appropriate.
 

Rusty Neon

Re: 6of Cups - Nostalgia

The 78th Fool said:
who is the mysterious departing figure on the left of the card ?

Alan Oken is rather poetic on this aspect of the RWS 6 of Cups card: "The emotional guard we kept up is walking away, taking his spear with him."
 

lark

There was a thread awhile back called, What's with the mitt????
It had some really good insights into this card.
I think celeste started it.
 

Vincent

Re: 6of Cups - Nostalgia

*****
 

cartarum

nostalgia

the whole card is what i call "that which is soon to be a memory."
upright or reversed. so i kinda jive with eteillas meanings.
 

Parzival

6 of Cups -- Nostalgia

This is an intriguing look at an intriguing arcanum. I think the central gesture is important : one child gives the other the white flower in the golden cup. Mittens indicate a winter chill in the air. A great cup with white flower stands over both children, a St. Andrews cross on a shield underneath.Child with child.
The man who walks away carries a spear or lance in his right hand.
All this suggests the birth of the Christ - Child ( starflower) in winter and in the human heart. The spear or lance, beside the great cup, is a key Grail symbol. It is the lance of Longlnus which pierced Christ's side and brought his blood into the Grail cup.
The 6 is Tiphareth, heart-center of the Kabbalah tree.Where spirit and matter are in unity.
But all this convergence of symbols blends with the artistic tone of simple joy and delight, golden and white under clear-cold sky.
Any thoughts about this perspective or other ones?
 

Fulgour

and then there is...

St.Andrew's Cross resembles the letter "X" in the English alphabet and is also referred to as the "saltier" or "Crux Decussata". According to tradition Andrew, the brother of Peter, was crucified on a cross of this shape. Andrew did not feel worthy enough to die on the same style of cross that Christ had died and requested a cross of another shape. His request was granted and he was crucified upside down on a cross which now bears his name. Rather than using nails to secure his limbs to the cross, Andrew was bound to the cross with ropes. His suffering was thus prolonged. St.Andrew's Cross came into wide use during the Medieval Period and became the national cross of Scotland, since St.Andrew was its patron saint.

http://home.inreach.com/bstanley/crosses.htm

SIX of CUPS
http://www.sacred-texts.com/tarot/pkt/img/cu06.jpg
 

Parzival

6 of Cups -- Nostalgia

The St. Andrews Cross is clearer in the " original" Waite- Smith than in the radiant, which places one arm over the other, taking away their meeting at center. Waite wrote a book on the Grail the same year (1909) he worked on the Tarot. It's not so surprising that he incorporates Grail symbols into his deck and lets readers find them, as we are doing . The St. Andrews cross may also be a Grail symbol ( so Margaret Starbird claims in her book, The Woman With The Alabaster Jar). I'm not sure about this.
Incidentally, the M on the Ace of Cups may be the first letter of the Grail castle in medieval German -- Mont Salvatch as Waite refers to it in the forementioned book ( Hidden Church of the Holy Grail). The M font is exactly the same in book (see index and Book 6, on the "German Cycle of the Holy Grail") and on card.
Back on track here. Spear, cup, X-cross, star-flower, all join on the left side of the 6 of Cups, with the gift cup-with-flower perfectly between the two children's hearts center and right.
And certainly there is more to this symbolic masterpiece.
 

starhermit

My take on this card is much more mundane than the other replies here (perhaps because I am new to tarot? :))

For me, the 6 of Cups represents innocence. Also wistfulness, looking back to a time when everything seemed simple and sweet and pure. Definately nostalgia there! And being taken care of completely, and security, just like when we were children and our parents sheltered us. Drawing on that parent-child analogy, I feel the card also shows uncomplicated, bone-deep love... not necessarily sexual.

I also feel that the 'negative' connotation of this card is looking at the past through rose-tinted glasses, remembering only those parts that bring us pleasure. And the flipside of being innocent would be ignorance I suppose.

Thoughts and comments welcome! :)