Llewellyn's Complete Book of the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot

by Sasha Graham

  The bandage on his head is a reminder that every wound carries a lesson. What does not kill you builds character and makes you stronger. Risk marks us in visible and invisible ways. If we are wise, we realize wounds let in the light. We bear a scar from the abusive relationship teaching us inner ferocity and strength. Recovery from an addiction reflects our depth, brilliance, and vulnerability. Fighting for independence teaches us its innate value. The card echoes the need for inner expansion. A goal is attained, and we move on to the next. We never stop. Goals themselves are thresholds leading to new objectives and new potentials.

  The figure holds the wand firmly in his grip. It suggests he maintains his ideals and passion. He glances to his right, the place of the past when the cards are laid upon the table. A lush green mountain range reflecting unlimited potential stands in the distance.

  Waite offers little guidance on the card, mentioning only, “The figure leans upon his staff and has an expectant look, as if awaiting an enemy.” Pamela adapted the image from the Book T’s description of “recovery from sickness,” as seen with the bandage on the fellow’s head. She even takes a cue for his facial expression: “Victory, preceded by apprehension and fear.” Depending on the surrounding cards, the Nine of Wands may display an unwillingness to trust others.

  Esoterically, the ninth position on the Tree of Life is the place where all things are pulverized before entering the material world. Viewed in this way, the threshold is specifically that place between the spiritual and the physical, an actual doorway. C. S. Lewis gave us a wardrobe in the Chronicles of Narnia, and Pamela Colman Smith gives us the Nine of Wands in the RWS deck.

  Waite’s Divinatory Meanings: The card signifies strength in opposition. If attacked, the person will meet an onslaught boldly; and his build shews, that he may prove a formidable antagonist. With this main significance there are all its possible adjuncts—delay, suspension, adjournment.

  Reversed: Obstacles, adversity, calamity.

  Ten of Wands

  Lord of Oppression—Saturn in Sagittarius—Stage Card

  His flagging wings athwart the story and stress

  Of hostile current wildly forward press.

  Arthur Waite, Collected Poems

  Wands stoke the spirit, boil the blood, and thrust us into action. Wands, as the essence of erotic love and passion, are a dazzlingly electric suit. The incendiary nature of wands can’t burn forever. The energetic process breeds deep soul exhaustion when flames reduce to embers. The individual ravaged and drained by the intensity of wands is displayed in the Ten of Wands.

  The Ten of Wands reflects the final stage of energetic reserves. A cycle is completed. The fellow walks away. This reflects taking what remains and departing. He grasps ten wands in his hands and arms, bearing responsibility for his actions. It is cleaning up what one has amassed. His back is bent and his head falls into the wands, signaling a need for rest. A blue sky hangs over a small estate and a neat patch of trees; safe haven awaits. A plowed field, ready for planting and rich with possibility, signals fresh beginnings as the suit renews itself in the ace. The cycle and situation has culminated for now. New prospects soon beckon.

  Pamela uses the Sola Busca’s Ten of Swords to inspire her design for this card. She mimics the hunched back and body language as the figure bears the weight of ten swords. Her rendering reflects hard work’s toll on the body and physical tiredness. Examine issues of exhaustion and treat the body kindly.

  The esoteric title of this card is “The Lord of Oppression.” Waite describes “a man oppressed by the weight of the ten staves he is carrying.” Waite offers more to the meaning of this card by explaining it as “a card of many significances” with multiple meanings. He claims, “I set aside that which connects it with honor and good faith.” Waite brushes aside the positive connotations of the card in order to examine the card’s darker side.

  Moving into the idea of unexpected consequence, he says, “The chief meaning is oppression simply, but also fortune, gain, any kind of success, and then it is the oppression of these things.” Waite speaks about the unintended consequence of gaining what is desired or an ideal you thought you desired. He reminds us to be careful of what we wish for. Wish fulfillment, at the end of its cycle, carries its own unique set of challenges. A desire for fame results in a loss

  of freedom, the desire for riches brings crushing responsibility, an obsessive love wears off as daily reality sets in.

  Waite becomes cryptic when he states, “The place which the figure is approaching may suffer from the rods that he carries.” His sentiment suggests the figure may visit harm to those whom he approaches. In this case, the card literally becomes the explosive nature of wands in its ultimate fire and fury before flickering into inky darkness.

  Waite’s Divinatory Meanings: A card of many significances, and some of the readings cannot be harmonized. I set aside that which connects it with honour and good faith. The chief meaning is oppression simply, but it is also fortune, gain, any kind of success, and then it is the oppression of these things. It is also a card of false-seeming, disguise, perfidy. The place which the figure is approaching may suffer from the rods that he carries. Success is stultified if the Nine of Swords follows, and if it is a question of a lawsuit, there will be certain loss.

  Reversed: Contrarieties, difficulties, intrigues, and their analogies.

  Ace of Cups

  Kether of Briah—Root of the Powers of Water

  The almond blossoms in thy breath; the red

  Lies richer on the rose;

  Earth yields up fragrant incense; where we tread

  Baptismal water flows.

  Arthur Waite, Collected Poems

  The Ace of Cups bursts with emotion, love, and intimacy. It is the perfect state of emotional flow. The overflowing baptismal water literally reflects the emotions of life pouring forth and the state of emotional openness and vulnerability. It is the ability to give and receive. The cup receives the dove’s gift as its waters pour forth. It is the card of rejuvenation, the water washing us physically and metaphorically. The energy erupting reflects the fresh energy of a shower, a waterfall, or even a good cry. The card evokes the auditory sound of bubbling, cascading water. The Ace of Cups is the yogic heart opener of the deck and is connected to the heart chakra, the place we each experience and express love, vulnerability, and peace.

  The element of water, reflected by the suit of cups, is the suit of emotions, feelings, and art. Pamela’s cups cards portray happy and heartwarming images. The reader should recognize, however, the nature of emotions runs a full spectrum from light to dark. Anger and fear linger where there is joy and expansion. Not every emotion feels wonderful; some emotions are uncomfortable and strange. It is wise, especially in the suits of swords and cups, to keep this in mind. Tarot’s images, whether on the RWS deck or any other deck, are only a single facet of what the card actually represents. A tarot card is like a single snapshot or photograph of you. It only grazes the top of what inhabits the space beneath.

  Pamela follows both the Book T and Waite’s instructions, though there is a disconnect between Waite’s description and her illustration. The Book T states, “A WHITE Radiant Angelic Hand, issuing from clouds, and supporting on the palm thereof a cup.” Pamela makes a faithful representation of this idea. The stark whiteness of the hand is apparent. The whiteness, as pale as a blank sheet of paper, marks stark contrast to the skin color of every other character in the deck. A spiky electrical field glows around the fist and wrist, depicting additional radiance. All other ace hands match in color and all display radiant angelic and celestial qualities.

  Lotus flowers and water lilies dot the water beneath the Ace of Cups, aligning with the Book T’s directive. The Golden Dawn embraces the lotus symbol. The lotus carries cross-cultural associations of death and resurrection. Ancient Egyptians used blue lotus flowers in art and hieroglyphs. They considere
d it a symbol of rebirth because the flower disappears at night, only to bloom again when the sun beams across the morning sky. The Egyptian Book of the Dead contains a resurrection spell. It turns the corpse into a lotus, thus giving the soul an opportunity to rise in immortality.

  The Ace of Cups is laden with Christian symbolism. Waite calls the Ace of Cups the “Holy Table” in The Pictorial Key. The Holy Table is part of the Christian Eucharist (note the dove with wafer appearing on the card). The Holy Table is an altar in other spiritual traditions. In Christian rites it occurs during Catholic mass. The New Testament describes the Eucharist occurring during Jesus’s Last Supper. He gives his disciples wine and bread. He tells them to continue doing so in memory of him. Jesus explains to them the bread is his body and the wine, his blood. Remembering Jesus’s sacrifice, churchgoers line up to receive a sacramental wafer (his body) and sip of wine (his blood) from the priest.

  The Ace of Wand’s dove, communion wafer, and cup reflect the Eucharist. The dove, a Christian symbol for peace and the Holy Spirit, descends toward the cup bearing the communion wafer or sacramental bread. Birds represent communication between mankind and the Divine due to their soaring ability. A Christian symbol of a cross moline or a cross potent decorates the wafer.

  The cup streams five rivers of water; however, Waite’s description of the card differs: “the cup, from which four streams are pouring.” Artist and creator were not on the same page regarding this image. Some have suggested Pamela was given free rein to design the minors, while Waite was more concerned with the majors. The “W” reflects either Waite’s name, the element of water, or an inversion of the Hebrew letter Mem, which is assigned to the element of water. The palm is receptive and open like the feminine element of water (cups) and earth (pentacles). The cup rests gently in the palm. This can be viewed oppositionally to the masculine elemental suits where the palms tightly grip the wand (fire) and sword (air).

  Waite’s Divinatory Meanings: House of the true heart, joy, content, abode, nourishment, abundance, fertility; Holy Table, felicity hereof.

  Reversed: House of the false heart, mutation, instability, revolution.

  Two of Cups

  Lord of Love—Venus in Cancer—Stage Card

  I will not speak of love to thee,

  For having looks in eyes like thine,

  Past love’s inscrutable mystery,

  Something more sacred, more divine

  And undeclared than love I see;

  And what those secret depths infold,

  That, in my heart, for thee I hold.

  Arthur Waite, Collected Poems

  The Two of Cups is the soul mate card. The charming Two of Cups echoes the heart’s emotional recognition in another. It is a meeting of the like-minded and finding your other half. Duality of the soul and discovering the heart’s mirrored desire. You meeting someone for the first time, yet it feels like you’ve known each other forever. Conversely, old friends come together, no matter how many months or years have passed, and it feels like you saw each other yesterday. The two of you pick up right where you left off.

  The card is structurally similar to the Lovers. Two figures face one another while a being floats above. The landscape rises behind the Two of Cups as does the mountain in the Lover’s card. Each figure is dressed as if attending a Shakespearean wedding. If the cups may be filled with liquid or drink, we do not see what it is. The two could be Romeo and Juliet uttering secret marriage vows.

  The couple’s costumes are colored with alchemical symbolism. The male is dressed in red and yellow, symbolizing fire (a masculine element also associated with wands), while the female dons blue, white, and green, the colors of water (a feminine element associated with cups). The female wears a laurel wreath, which is an interlocking set of bay leaves representing victory.

  The red lion suggests the element of air. Waite tells us, “Above their cups rises the Caduceus of Hermes.” The symbol of a caduceus is a winged rod with two snakes winding around it. It is a symbol of the Greek god Hermes (Roman Mercury). The caduceus has long been associated with Hermes, known as the messenger of the gods. Acting as intermediary between humans and gods, Hermes is able to traverse the boundaries between the natural and supernatural. Greeks viewed him as the dream god. They made their last daily offerings to Hermes

  at bedtime, linking Hermes with the dreamlike and ephemeral quality of the suit of cups. Is the card a vision? Has the couple dreamt each other into existence?

  The two snakes are the dualistic symbol of business, negotiation, and the balance between them. It speaks heavily to the legal structure of marriage existing beneath warm emotions. It could even be construed as an arranged or predestined marriage. The wings atop the staff are a nod to Hermes and the speed at which he delivers his messages. A wider view sees dual snakes as a combined effort of moving up the Tree of Life as embarked upon by the Golden Dawn.

  Waite describes “between the great wings of which there appears a lion’s head. It is a variant of a sign which is found in a few old examples of this card. Some curious emblematic meanings are attached to it, but they do not concern us in this place.” The lion on the Two of Cups, according to author David Allen Hulse, is a symbol for the alchemical homunculus, a small yet completely formed human being. It first appeared in alchemical writings in 1537, but the idea reaches back further into folklore and history. The idea posits that an alchemist can mix certain properties, namely human semen and blood, to create miniature creatures. This Frankensteinish idea was reported inside the Masonic Die Spinx, a book written by Italian mystic Count Johann Ferdinand von Kufstein and a Rosicrucian cleric named Abbé Geloni. An entire chapter is devoted to a “true account” of ten homunculi grown inside of sealed jars in 1775. It was said each homunculi had its own distinctive personality. The homunculi foretold future events to those who visited them. This tale gives us an idea of the contents of the manuscripts, alchemical grimoires, and mixture of occult and Masonic activity that individuals like Arthur Waite spent hours examining and rewriting inside the British Museum.

  Pamela took into account the Book T’s description of this card as “harmony of masculine and feminine united.” The astrological associations of Venus in Cancer is woven into this card. Venus is expressed via the love implied between the couple. Cancer governs the home that is painted onto the scrim between them.

  The Two of Cups, devilishly simplistic, holds layers of meaning. It speaks to the occult and alchemical idea of merging the masculine and feminine side of oneself. This integration, akin to the center pillar of the Tree of Life, is the spiritual creature known as the hermaphrodite, as seen in the final card, the World.

  Waite’s Divinatory Meanings: Love, passion, friendship, affinity, union, concord, sympathy, the interrelation of the sexes, and—as a suggestion apart from all offices of divination—that desire which is not in Nature, but by which Nature is sanctified.

  Reversed: No reversals are listed.

  Three of Cups

  Lord of Abundance—Mercury in Cancer

  I know such spirits though the starry spaces

  Subsist for ever with increasing graces!

  Arthur Waite, Collected Poems

  The Three of Cups carries a simple and straightforward interpretation. The celebration is yours and shared with friends. The deep bonds of friendship, moving in harmony with others, and the creative nature of emotion in its highest element. Happiness is greatest when shared with others. The threefold law of return states what you put out returns three times in strength. Share with others what you hope to receive. Give to others what you wish you had. The more you give, the more you receive.

  The abundant Three of Cups reflects the triplicity of pleasure and flow. Creativity abounds as consorts of the goddess spin, twirl, and dance. The three maidens cheer each other. The lush field bursts with harvest bounty as manifestation multiplies. Macbeth’s three witches embr
ace summer’s intoxication in a circular dance. The three Graces ritualize summer with their graceful choreography. It is merriment, joy, and happiness.

  The Three of Cups is a reminder to surround yourself with people who lift you up. All life is an energetic exchange. Stop to consider how you spend and conserve personal energetic reserves. Are you surrounded by people who support you or beings who deplete you? Make adjustments accordingly.

  Visually, the three cups are arranged as the upper triad in the formation of the first three Sephiroth of the supernal triad on the Tree of Life. The maidens take on the elemental association of each Sephiroth, the left maiden as air (Kether), the center maiden as fire (Chokmah), and the right maiden representing water (Binah). The top three spots of the Tree of Life, the beginning of spiritual life, dance in celebration. Romans cultivated grapes, which are sacred to Bacchus, the Roman god of agriculture, wine, and fertility. The grapes held in the hand of the right maiden are a reference to intoxication and can also be found on the female’s tail in the Devil card. The grapes evoke the Nine of Pentacles and the woman who stands inside her vineyard, as well as the King of Pentacles.

  Waite offers up no clue and tells his readers what we can see for ourselves: “Maidens in a garden-ground with cups uplifted, as if pledging one another.” The Book T offers a narrative which Pamela adapted in her design. It explains, “Binah of HB:H (Plenty, hospitality, eating and drinking, pleasure, dancing, new clothes, merriment).” The Golden Dawn’s title, “The Lord of Abundance,” is apparent in the design as well. Pamela places an Elizabethan tone to the card as if this were a vision in the field of a midsummer night’s dream, where fairies prance circles in the moonlight, leaving circles of mushrooms and toadstools in their wake.

  Waite’s Divinatory Meanings: The conclusion of any matter in plenty, perfection and merriment; happy issue, victory, fulfilment, solace, healing.