The Man on 6 of Cups

[chickandegg]

To me the man is part of the structure that seems to surround the location of the children. The location here is like a home or encampment; the buildings and grey stones are like the protective structure of a medieval town.

This boy and girl are safe here and it is important that they are, so they dont feel guilty for indulging their childhood/have time to enjoy their childhood without worrying. Trusting that everything is okay and it is fine for now to be carefree and enjoy each other. The man is like a guard or patrol person.

That's what I always thought. I saw the man as representing adult supervision and protection. But of course, that's hardly the only way to interpret his presence. As xdiminished noted, the man is painted in drab colors. He is facing away from the children. Perhaps he can be seen as being like a symbol of reality or the less-than-ideal world of adulthood.

Ooh, I just thought of another interpretation. Maybe the children in the foreground are simply part of a happy past that the patrol man is remembering? And the boy holding the cup is the man himself!

Just throwing that out there.

 

[Parzival]

Man on 6 of cups

He seems to be going up steps towards a sky-pointing tower that might be part of a castle. His up-turned spear is close to the side of the golden cup topped with the star-flower. Is he a Grail knight in service of the Divine, as the child gifts the child nearby? Between the background spear-man walking away and the two children giving and receiving forefront is the Andrew's cross surmounted with the star-flower. There is something mysteriously meaningful about the spear next to the flowering cup, both near to the Andrew's cross and the children.

 

[ana luisa]

I agree wit chickandegg. The man and the boy are probably the same person. This card usually shows a connection or reconnection with the past.Your past.

 

[Glitterbird]

I sometimes get the idea that this card can sometimes represent your long past "Glory days" You remember the good things in vibrant detail and the bad things (grey scary guy)seem to shrink away in our memory

 

[starchild]

this could have a double meaning. the guard could be walking away because what is happening in the garden between the girl and the bigger boy isnt realy important and he has no reason to stay around.
or
he could be turning his back on these two when realy he should be doing his job of protecting the young girl, that then makes the card a whole lot more synister.

but nostaligia, looking into ones past. i guess there is only two types of childhoods for all of us. one of innocence and happyness or one of peaple turning our backs on us and not protecting us. looking into ones own childhood is normally good or bad, never the same for everyone.

 

[missy]

Since one meaning of the Six of Cups is nostalgia, I see the man as walking away into his future. Or into the present. Leaving the past behind. Looking back and being nostalgic is fine, but at the end of the day you have to live in the present.

As for the two faces on the girl, I read them much like the faces on the Deviant Moon: conscious and subconscious. The subconsious face could be "Present her" remembering when he gave her the flowers so many years ago. It could represent her internal mind as she looks back on happier times (memories). It could even be two faces, one a girl and one a woman.