Sophie
I admit that the Ace of Cups is one of the first cards I look for in any deck, and to me, a failed Ace of Cups can mean the difference between a successful deck, and a merely so-so one.
I love the Fey Ace of Chalices. It captured my heart the minute I saw it. A little fey - girl or boy, we don't know - with big trusting eyes, stands in a large cup of aquamarine water, cupping water in its hands to offer to someone outside the image. It reminds me of St Exupéry's The Little Prince - it has the little prince's same fresh, unsullied but deeply serious innocence. I am reminded of what the little prince learnt - and taught: "we only really see with the heart; what is essential is invisible to the eyes". This Ace of Chalices fey has an all-seeing heart shining through its golden eyes...
It reminds me too of that scene in Cocteau's Beauty and the Beast, when Beauty stoops to the stream to cup water in her hands for the Beast to drink. One of the most touching and erotic acts of love ever filmed.
When we love absolutely, unconditionally, we can do nothing else but hand out our heart - our emotions, our love, our compassion, our understanding - the way this fey is handing out water. Simply, humbly, without drama or thought of reward. The fey is putting out its cupped hands because it is the most natural gesture in the world. "Here, you are thirsty, drink." There is a charge of compassion and trust flowing through this image, and also a strange kind of eroticism - Beauty giving a drink to the Beast...
And this brings me to a third reference. Garance, in The Children of Paradise, tells her beloved, the complex, frightened Baptiste - "It is so simple, love..."
Yes, looking at this card, love is so simple. Without anything but water held out in a pair of cupped hands, love can create anything, and wear down even the most unmovable situation. It demands nothing, and so obtains everything.
Or so I hope...
I love the Fey Ace of Chalices. It captured my heart the minute I saw it. A little fey - girl or boy, we don't know - with big trusting eyes, stands in a large cup of aquamarine water, cupping water in its hands to offer to someone outside the image. It reminds me of St Exupéry's The Little Prince - it has the little prince's same fresh, unsullied but deeply serious innocence. I am reminded of what the little prince learnt - and taught: "we only really see with the heart; what is essential is invisible to the eyes". This Ace of Chalices fey has an all-seeing heart shining through its golden eyes...
It reminds me too of that scene in Cocteau's Beauty and the Beast, when Beauty stoops to the stream to cup water in her hands for the Beast to drink. One of the most touching and erotic acts of love ever filmed.
When we love absolutely, unconditionally, we can do nothing else but hand out our heart - our emotions, our love, our compassion, our understanding - the way this fey is handing out water. Simply, humbly, without drama or thought of reward. The fey is putting out its cupped hands because it is the most natural gesture in the world. "Here, you are thirsty, drink." There is a charge of compassion and trust flowing through this image, and also a strange kind of eroticism - Beauty giving a drink to the Beast...
And this brings me to a third reference. Garance, in The Children of Paradise, tells her beloved, the complex, frightened Baptiste - "It is so simple, love..."
Yes, looking at this card, love is so simple. Without anything but water held out in a pair of cupped hands, love can create anything, and wear down even the most unmovable situation. It demands nothing, and so obtains everything.
Or so I hope...