The two of cups in tarot is a positive card that is connected to romance, love and relationships. Overall, the card portends a pairing between two individuals, along with all of the emotions, compromise and happiness that such connection can bring.

Ok, so now I’m really confused. Last night was the Christmas gift exchange w/ the roomies (I guess I should say ‘Holiday exchange’ since RK’s Jewish). So it wasn’t anything HUGE…but little things are starting to add up to maybe he likes me too…ESP when we drink together. So RK didn’t get home til almost 7, I thought he was out buying last-min gifts for me & Roomie B, but I guess he had ANOTHER 12-hour workday. I made dinner and we opened presents – he hugged me when he opened the Patriots shirt I got him (there’s been a lot of that lately, but I’m a hugger, maybe he just caught the Hug Bug from me). Then we went to the bar for Trivia night, more drinking. About 2 hours and 3 beers later…I know that I prob touch him too much when I’ve been drinking – put my hand on his leg or ruffle his hair, but last night he was doing it back to me. And we were having some kind of drunken conversation, I have NO idea how this started, and he said he wants a job where he takes people into a room and tells them what’s wrong with them…and I go ‘what would you tell me?’ and he said ‘I wouldn’t change one thing about you.’ Later, when Friend J and I were talking about types of guys, we date, RK mumbled that it sounded like I dated douchebags (which I guess I do), and on the drunken walk home, we walked arm-in-arm…if Roomie B doesn’t know by now that I’m in lurve w/ RK, he’s GOTTA know now.

Anyway, long story longer…it hit me this morning that Faith said that when I did fall in love this year (with someone who’s just in love with me as I was with him), that there would be an obstacle in our way, but that we’d get over it and be happy together a long, long time. I was thinking at the time that it might be an obstacle of distance or money or something, but now I’m wondering if she meant (gulp) a FIANCEE.

Who, btw, is moving back to the area this week.

The plot thickens.

(Note: I put the Two of Cups up because that was the last card Faith put out when she *knew* that I would fall in love soon – this is what the card means:

To understand the 2 of Cups, all you have to do is look at its image. A man and a woman are gazing at each other, ready to share their cups (emotions). Here is the very picture of romantic and sexual attraction. The energy between these two is almost palpable. The Two of Cups shows the beauty and power that is created when two come together. This is the card that lovers want to see, and, in fact, the Two of Cups is the minor arcana equivalent of the Lovers in many ways.

The Two of Cups has a deeper meaning as well. Whenever two forces are drawn together, there is the potential for bonding. This card can stand for the union of any two entities – people, groups, ideas, or talents. In readings, the Two of Cups tells you to look for connections in your life, especially those that are one-on-one. Now is not the time to separate or stay apart. It is the time to join with another and work as a partnership. If you are in conflict, look for truce and the chance to forgive and be forgiven. If you are struggling with two choices or tendencies within yourself, seek to reconcile them.

Usually, the Two of Cups is welcome in a reading, but it can also sound a note of warning. The energy of Two can be very compelling. If you have ever stood next to two people in love, you know what I’m talking about. They create between themselves a world of their own that can feel exclusionary to outsiders. “Two’s company; three’s a crowd.” Make sure that the tendency to pair off is not creating disharmony in your situation.)

Today’s draw is the seven of Cups, the two of Cups, and the Wheel of Fortune.Click on the cards to see a larger scan of the reading.

The seven of Cups usually comes up for me when I need to stop daydreaming, choose an area of focus, and just GO. In this case I think I am spending too much time working on my other projects (including both Tarot and crochet) and not enough time with the circus training that I love. It is a lot easier to sit on the couch with some yarn and some cards than to get up and move, but I need to!

Ah, but the two of cups, what a card of harmony, no? I don’t need to give up my other hobbies, I just need to find a balance. I need to be willing to spend time on all of the things I love when they will each benefit me most. I may be hanging out at a cafe with my yarn or my cards tonight, so I should get some stretching or some working out done today.

I like the Wheel of Fortune card. What goes up must come down, the whole world is a circle and things go in cycles. The Wheel reminds me of fate and destiny, and I know that my time is coming… I just have to be ready to enjoy it when it gets here.

The deck that I used today is the Mystic Dreamer Tarot. If you enjoy it, you may also like the Llewellyn Tarot. Both are available through Amazon, and any purchase made through the links on this page will benefit Reading the Cards, so thank you for your patronage!

Today’s draw: The Fool, the Tower, and the two of Cups. Click on the image for a larger scan!

Today’s cards are really literal, which is nice after you’ve had a run of confusing or very deep readings. The Fool means, about as literally as you can get, the Fool’s journey that I took through my newest Tarot deck. I went through all the cards today, and enjoyed the artwork immensely.

The Tower probably refers to the neck pain that hit me last night. It is hindering my movements and abilities, and I pretty much feel like a cracked Tower today. Not very fun, but from every bad comes good, so I’m also not worried. I’m stretching and feeling better little by little.

The two of Cups confused me at first, but as I was working on the spread, my husband called. Turns out he won’t be out late tonight after all, but will be coming home to spend the evening with me. Like the couple in the card, we will just enjoy each other’s company tonight. Very good!

The Fenestra is a deck designed and created by a Thai artist to express the many influence on her artistic work and her love of the Tarot. The images are soft acrylic in a watercolor style, and pretty easy to read. If you would like to purchase the Fenestra Tarot, click here! All purchases through the link of this blog support Reading the Cards, so thank you!

Daily Draw August 2nd, 2009

I am frazzled today and feeling out of sorts. A project I was working on got wrecked and I wasted some materials, and I bought a special gold gel pen yesterday at the art shop and the clerk forgot to put it in the bag.

One of those days.

TWO OF CUPS

This is from the Universal Tarot. This card is often about deep friendship or the romantic partner. I like the flow in this, as if when you are empty and frazzled your partner can fill you up both metaphorically and sexually; Cancer the crab is receptivity.

This particular crab is a ghost crab, which says to me a disappearing act, camouflage is needed today, it’s a day to dig into the burrow. These crabs also scuttle very fast and are able to make sharp directional changes. Now that’s a helpful thought on a day when things just aren’t working, aren’t gel-ing at all.

Make a sharp directional change.

I don’t know, seems like some of this stuff just fits right now.

10) The Logical Song – Supertramp – “Now watch what you say or they’ll be calling you a radical.  Liberal, fanatical, criminal.”

09) Invincible – Pat Benatar – “This shattered dream you cannot justify.  We’re gonna scream until we’re satisfied.  What are we running for?  We’ve got the right to be angry.  What are we running for?  When there’s nowhere we can run to anymore.”

08) Lost! – Coldplay – “You might be a big fish in a little pond.  Doesn’t mean you’ve won.  ‘Cause along may come a bigger one.  And you’ll be lost.”

07) Velvet Rope – Janet Jackson – “We have a special need.  To feel that we belong…This special need.  That’s within us.  Brings out the best yet worst in us…Put others down to feel us up.  Oppressing me will oppress you.  Outside leave judgment, outside leave hate.  One love’s the answer, you’ll find in you.”

06) How Soon Is Now – The Smiths – “You shut your mouth.  How can you say, I go about things the wrong way?  I am human and I need to be loved, just like everybody else does.”

05) People Are People – Depeche Mode – “So we’re different colors, and we’re different creeds.  And different people have different needs.  It’s obvious you hate me though I’ve done nothing wrong.  I’ve never even met you so what could I have done?  I can’t understand what makes a man, hate another man – help me understand.  People are people so why should it be, you and I should get along so awfully?”

04) Colors of the Wind – Vanessa Williams – “You think the only people who are people.  Are the people who look and think like you.  But if you walk the footsteps of a stranger, you’ll learn things you never knew, you never knew.”

03) New Power Generation – Prince – “Pardon me for living, but this is my world too.  I can’t help it what’s cool to us, might be strange to you.  Pardon me for breathing, can we borrow some of your air?  The problem with you and your kind is you don’t know love is there…Pardon me for thinking, but there’s something under my hair.  I bet you thought the lights were on, but no one’s living there.  You think that if you tell enough lies, they will see the truth.  I hope they bury your old ideas, the same time they bury you.”

02) Freedom – Robert Miles – “Free – everyone is free.  In the new day that’s coming, freedom for all is our destiny…Freedom from shame.  Freedom from fear.  Freedom to live.  It’s your right to be here.”

Drumroll please…………..

Tied for number 1 is:

01) Breathe – Two of Cups – “We tend to forget, we’re all the same.  We all have joy, we all have pain.  But if we would remember, how beautiful it would be.  If we breathe.”

01) Waiting on the World To Change – John Mayer – “Now we see everything that’s going wrong with the world and those who lead it.  We just feel like we don’t have the means, to rise above and beat it.  So we keep waiting for the world to change…Now if we had the power to bring our neighbors home from war, they would never have missed a Christmas.  No more ribbons on their door.  And when you trust your television, what you get is what you got.  ‘Cause when they own the information, they can bend it all they want.  That’s why we’re waiting on the world to change.”

Now discuss…

So…if you saw Ugly Betty on the 9th, you had to hear that haunting song that ended the episode.  That song launched me into one of my most vigorous ‘googling’ sessions to date.

I couldn’t find anything with the few lyrics that I could remember – “we all have joy and we all have pain…just breathe.”  I even wrote into the Ugly Betty blog to ask if any of the other readers knew the song.  Lo and behold, someone did and I was able to go to iTunes and buy “Breathe” by Two of Cups.

I’m not kidding when I say that the song gets in your head.  You can actually hear it on the artist’s myspace page.

It seems to capture the feeling that we all need to embrace right now.  Basically, we all have good times and bad, but how beautiful things would be if we just breathe.  At least that’s my translation.

If you have the chance, check it out…definitely puts life into perspective.

I love the aspect of balance in the Two cards from the tarot. No matter what the symbolism used, balance comes forth in many decks, but I particularly like Place’s depictions here, which seem to have a more realistic positive and negative take on humanity seen through spiritual symbolism.

TWO OF CUPS

Grapes, roses, lilies, and a heart-shaped vase with flames shooting from it make a colourful border below the cups on this card. Robert Place has three sentences only for this card so I’ll ramble on a bit.

The vase echoes the sacred heart of Jesus, first seen by nun Saint Marguerite Marie Alacoque in 17th century France. She saw visions of Jesus, alive with a flaming heart, that symbolized the manifestation of his heart and how he wanted devotion to his heart and love, mercy and grace. I am never quite sure why the difference was needed between Jesus proper and the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Marguerite’s rhapsodic visions have more than a bit of the sexual about them with the throbbing heart, her intense predilection for sobbing and carrying on during prayer, and her history of deprivations and mortifications. The lurid artwork that is generated to depict the sacred heart is simply nauseating to me, as are this woman’s hysterical visions. However, the idea of devotion and love toward another being works well in this card.

Having often read of flowers in the words from the Song of Solomon from the Old Testament, I immediately connected this imagery to that:

I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys
As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters.
As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.
He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love.

It is generally a love story about a man and woman and considered to be very sensual. In Christianity, this lovely lyrical passage is regarded as the story of the love between the Church and Jesus, with the Church being the bride of Christ. However you look at it, the verses are a perfect reference for this card dealing with two people becoming as one.

The poem also refers to grapes: “Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes.” There was a wonderful movie with Edward G. Robinson called Our Vines Have Tender Grapes that had a sweet story of a father and daughter. Lillian Helman’s chilling play The Little Foxes, about theft, deception, alcoholism, murder, and revenge in a family is also taken from this biblical verse. The little foxes are often not so little sins.

Perhaps as well as the image of lovers eating grapes and tasting their grape-infused lips, is the negative reality of two people joining to create a family, and what that might create, goodness and prosperity, or bad, bad relationships and morals. The balance is up to the two partners in life.

TWO OF SWORDS

The crossed swords are a symbol of discussion in peace, with the Holy Spirit presiding, represented by the dove. I often call this card in other decks, the “parlay” card since away from the Rider-Waite tradition it sometimes depicts the leaders of armies talking at a truce. The Right of Parlay is something that in naval tradition was not allowed to be refused, so a secondary whiff in the card of being forced to keep communication open here. Parlay comes from the Latin root par, which means “equal,” and highlights the classic balance imbued in this archetype.

Let us listen to Winston Churchill in words to Hitler: “We will have no truce or parlay with you, or the grisly gang who work your wicked will.”  And in another quote related to Hitler: “He will find no peace, no rest, no halting place, no parlay.” Parlays are tricky things to manage, all the more necessary to have the Holy Spirit as a referee according to this card.

TWO OF COINS

Here we see the balance between the Church, represented by the monogram IHS, a contraction of Iesous Christos, with a cross; and the government, represented by the coin with the head of Caesar engraved on it. This card often depicts a fellow juggling, trying to keep his equilibrium.

The famous words of Jesus to “Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s” are the inspiration for this card. There is a subtle undercurrent for me of separation, yet maintaining a pretense of unity, as people seeming to follow the rules are actually undermining authority, which might be a negative interpretation you could tag this with, or positive depending on the situation.

For instance, my personal memories of reports of people living in communist countries, current and former, adopting a pretense of following government orders, while privately maintaining a spiritual practice, seem a good tie-in to this card. It could even refer to adhering to the rules of your employer while maintaining your personal creativity and initiative, and forming a barrier from letting work overwhelm your personal life.

TWO OF STAFFS

If you look closely, you can see the head of a serpent on one staff and a curling vine on the other. The candle flame represents passion and the two opposites cross over the flame and come together with passion.

The vine looks more like an acanthus leaf to me, and some scholars think acanthus was the plant that made the crown of thorns placed on Jesus to mock him during his execution. The serpent is a classic biblical symbol for Satan, so the opposites of good and evil come together in this card.

The acanthus leaf was carved in ancient Greece as decoration for columns, and carried forward into architectural elements from many periods. It is also famous in designs by William Morris in the 19th century, so it seems a marker for civilization and the continuing battle of good and evil in human history. With the serpent representing evil and deceit in some societies and regeneration and guardianship in others, there is a certain ambiguousness here that I like.

Passion can be a sacred path to rebirth, or a venomous evil that squeezes the life from you.