Page of Cups reversed/Two of Cups. The Page of Cups in an upright position corresponds to Libra (“we are,” partnerships, balance, cooperation), Scorpio (“I desire,” intensity compulsion, mystery) and Sagittarius (“I seek,” philosophic, adventurous, blundering), and I am being warned that my physical senses will not be helping me to hear the message of my Inner Voice. I need to beware of any strong or vivid emotions, for today they may end up leading me to a place that I do not want to be. The Two of Cups (Venus, beauty, allure, relationships, in Cancer, “I feel,” sensitive, family and home oriented, tenacious, moody) is usually about relationships. They may be an issue for me today, especially with that Page of Cups reversed pairing up with my Two of Cups. I need to also remember that it is possible that this card is not referring to a relationship with someone else, but rather could be referring to my relationship with myself.

My Thoth card is the Ten of Cups. “Satiety” is Crowley’s keyword for The Ten of Cups (Mars, action, spontaneity, aggression, drive, in Pisces, “I believe,” feeling, duality, spirituality, suffering and growth), which offers an unexpected lesson: achieving happiness takes work, which is to be expected, but maintaining that happiness also takes work, hard work. The cool thing about the happiness that is associated with this card is that it is completely emotional in nature; no physical possessions are necessary in order to create this kind of happiness, and actually, they can actually be a distraction from it. My three Cups cards are certainly presenting a valuable message.

My Legacy card is The Empress, flavored by the Four of Swords reversed. . The Empress corresponds with Earth (cold/binds and dry/shapes, and stable, material, practical energies that are slow to change), Venus (beauty, allure, pleasure, relationships), Daleth (door or womb) and the Path between Binah (female receptive energy and the origin of form and structure) and Chokmah (dynamic male energy and the origin of vital force and polarity). She has appeared a few times for me lately, and represents creativity, fertility, the physical body and its senses, and the material world and the workings of Nature. The Empress can be seen to be a part of the Seven of Cups, as she is said to correspond with the Cup that contains a beautiful woman. The Four of Swords (Jupiter, expansiveness and growth, justice, fortune, in Libra, “We are,” partnerships, balance, cooperation) reversed is flavoring my Empress today; in an upright position it tells of the need of some time of rest and recuperation, usually to be brought about by a time of truce or pause. But this card is reversed today, so it is encouraging my Empress to manifest fully.

My 6-digit date number is 9 the number of completeness of experience and manifestation.

My horoscopes: “If you've wanted to get involved in some type of volunteer organization, today may be when you sign up to support a worthy cause. Whether it's Habitat for Humanity or the Nature Conservancy, you realize that working to better the planet is an important element that has been missing in your life. Life glows all that much brighter with your new altruistic outlook, Sagittarius.”

And: “In a group situation at work, you might be the only person who sees the problem for what it is. Your clarity will cut through the politics and red tape like a laser, and what you see might not be good news for everyone involved. Wait until you know for sure that your insights will be appreciated before speaking up. Just because you are correct doesn't mean that everyone else needs to know it. Someone's ego can be quite fragile, so tread lightly.”

And: “Some pretty heavy soul-searching could reveal to you that the time has come to make use of a talent which you may have always had but never developed. This could involve nothing more than a little practice, or you could decide to go in for some formal training in the matter. This is a positive sign, but your determination might waver over the next few days. Don't hesitate - stay with it!”

My Sun reading: “People believe they know what everyone else is thinking when the Moon is in psychic Scorpio. However, with lunar aspects today and tonight, few really know what they think yet, so are prone to changing their minds. For some, feelings are stronger than any sense of reason.”

Back to the 26^th Path. This one is not as difficult as it could be, because I have experienced this Dark Night already. See my entry for August 2, 2010 in this Blog. I also have learned some non-traditional information about the Tarot Major Arcana card that corresponds to this Path, The Devil.

The traditional message of The Devil is connected to addictions and bondages of all kinds, and its illustration usually contains a traditional Christian Devil and a man and woman bound in chains. In many situations, this image and this meaning have a powerful message, but every so often a different, less evil message is appropriate. The thing about The Devil card is that it represents a focus on the physical world and the feeding of the physical senses, in exclusion of all other realms. This imbalance is mostly seen as evil, especially by Christians, who tend to discount the pleasures of this life because they are focusing on the next life in Heaven. (And this is by no means a judgment, just an opinion.)

The Devil can be seen as a perversion of two other Major Arcana cards: The Lovers (which is about important, loving relationships and personal choice) and The Hierophant (which is about religion/spirituality, teaching/learning wisdom, and the preservation of culture). He is about turning those cards upside down in order to release and feed the power within, offering bondage rather than choice, and hurtful wisdom rather than support of others and self. But, The Devil can certainly be a profitable businessman, and there are times when his traits are beneficial.

However, from Wiccan eyes, and from a worldview whose Goddess says that “all acts of love and pleasure are done in My name,” focusing for a time on the pleasures of the physical senses is not a bad thing, as long as it is done with harm to none, and not as an exclusive plan. The way of perceiving things that comes with The Devil is only negative and hurtful if it is used to manipulate self or dominate others.

Even so, my worldview is more than the physical world and its pleasures, much more. And shattering the bonds of The Devil is the only way to connect with and understand those other Universes. Perhaps the message I need to remember this go round about the 26^th Path is that these temptations to dominate can very easily be justified in my own mind, especially if my initial intentions are good. Yes, Force needs Form, but it also needs the freedom from Form.

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