Glad this thread was bumped. Since firemaiden posted the Camoin, I’m going to stick with that card, since I agree. It’s monstrous!
Since this thread was started before
La Voie du Tarot by Jodorowsky was out, I thought I’d take quick glance at what he has to say about the Camoin As de Coupe.
This doesn’t mean I am taking the position of agreeing with what he says. I am merely translating some bits and pieces to add to what is already an excellent discussion.
I don’t see the face or a bird in the cup…but that’s me…I’ll keep trying.
In the book, he has a picture of the cup and the caption says:
This is a chalice of a powerful, complete love. It is an open temple, in contrast to a fortress.
Jodorowsky’s discussion is several pages long. The following is a translation summary:
The discussion begins with the base of the chalice which is flesh colored, therefore pure and virginal. This cup stands for emotional virginity that is intact, and for love that can be renewed over and over…like a well, but one whose source is timeless. As we move up the base, we find blue…indicating that in the flesh, the spirit develops and grows through suffering and experience.
The base could also represent a temple, a pyramid with three sides. The yellow and the orange on the sides of the base sets this cup always in the light of eternal life. The red pyramid on the base, is evocative of stability and permanence. The left side of the base, however, is shaded suggesting the reign of death …along with the three sides of the pyramid representing three aspects of existence: creation, life/preservation? and destruction.
The five petals of the reversed yellow flower, stand for the five senses, representing the evolution or process by which one intelligently takes in the trials of this incarnation in order to reach the summit of the Cup, where the Word of the Creator is represented here as in other places in the Tarot, by the point of a sword.
Above the yellow flower are 3 times 3 concentric circles The two outside ones correspond to the past and the future, colored green to represent hope and remembrance. The red concentric circles represent the present, with its pure experience in the moment.
There are three circles in each circle with the most exterior one representing the intellectual, the second standing for the emotional and the central circle, the sexual life.
If one chooses, the three within the three could also stand for the body, soul and spirit.
In continuing the climb toward the summit of the cup, one sees a red half-circle with horizontal rays. Complete or total love works first in darkness, then becomes conscious and is composed of love of self which we project outward, then, as love of other, love of the universe and divine love. This humble, yet immense feeling (love) holds up the body of the cathedral. All of human wisdom rests within love. As Walt Whitman says,” He who spends a life without love, walks already buried toward his own funeral.”
The three blue palm leaves have, respectively, five, seven and four points. Add these and we have XVI, La Maison Dieu. The blue leaves call upon pure intuition to communicate with the spiritual experience on the horizon…one of suffering. The spirit will transcend this suffering and arrive in the white light of purity that surrounds the cup with an atmosphere of purification.
This ordinary cup, this simple temple, pours of itself into the world. At the root of love, there is the desire to give all one has gained.
That’s the sum of what Jodorowsky has to say about As de Coupe and the designs and colors used by Camoin.
terri