Thursday, April 23, 2015

4/22/15 the Ten of Cups and The Empress reversed

Today I chose to go back to my Llewellyn Welsh Tarot, and I threw the Ten of Cups and The Empress reversed. 

The Ten of Cups (Mars, action, spontaneity, aggression, drive, in Pisces, “I believe,” feeling, duality, spirituality, suffering and growth) in an upright position offers the manifestation of happiness, simple joys, and fulfillment. The number Ten is about the completion of a cycle or manifestation, and the suit of Cups is about emotions, feelings and the inner self, so this card offers the bounty that comes with the successful experiencing of all the lessons of the Cups cards.

The Llewellyn Welsh Ten of Cups is a lovely card.  Children play along a stream near a small bridge, surrounded by green grass and protective mountains, with a house in the background, an embracing couple in the foreground, and a rainbow arching over all.  Everyone in this image is blessed with love and happiness, obtained without money or fine clothes or a fancy home.  All those outer embellishments aren’t necessary for happiness!  All you need is love!

The Empress (my significator card, which corresponds with Earth (cold/binds and dry/shapes, and stable, material, practical energies that are slow to change), Venus (beauty, allure, pleasure, relationships), the Hebrew letter Daleth (door or womb) and the Path between Binah (female receptive energy and the origin of form and structure) and Chokmah on the Tree of Life (dynamic male energy and the origin of vital force and polarity)) is one half of the Major Arcana representation of the Sacred Feminine (along with The High Priestess), the half that is about creativity, fertility of all kinds, a deep connection to Nature and the nurturing of others, and an enjoyment of the senses. My Empress, who is the mother of form, tells of creative intelligence; she reveals the concepts guarded by The High Priestess, and she encourages me to immerse myself in the manifestations of the physical world. 

The Llewellyn Welsh Empress sits on a throne, clothed in green and blue and white, embroidered with red flowers.  In her lap she holds a scepter (symbol of royalty) and an orb (symbol of feminine energies or traits); a shield embossed with two swans shaped in a heart (symbol of love) rests at her feet.  This is a fertile card, filled with verdant growth and living creatures, and a queen who is kind and capable.   Because my Empress is reversed, there may be a bit of turmoil in my day that will shake my serenity. 

That Ten of Cups makes perfect sense to me, because I am preparing to spend a weekend with close friends, celebrating a wedding!  We will all be gathering in the name of love, and the fancy dresses and fine foods are not what will bring us happiness; it is being amidst friends and loved ones that will make us all feel blessed.  I need to remind myself that the extravagances and decorations, no matter how beautiful, are not the important thing, and I need to remember that this weekend is not about me and my pleasures, it is about my guests and the family of the bride and groom. 

As a side note, The Empress has been appearing reversed quite often lately.  I wonder if I am being told that it is finally time to release The Empress as my significator card.  She has been my “representative” for a decade now.  Just for the heck of it, I picked up my Llewellyn Welsh deck again, thinking about which Major Arcana card might be my significator.  I began to shuffle after asking for guidance, thinking that I would just keep turning cards over until I came to a Major Arcana card, and I’ll be damned!  There, in the middle of the deck, was one card turned upright.  Ask a question, and you will get an answer!!  My new significator: The Hierophant!!

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