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

by Sasha Graham

  Reversed: Expedition, dispatch, achievement, end. It signifies also the side of excess in physical enjoyment, and the pleasures of the senses.

  Four of Cups

  Lord of Blended Pleasure—Moon in Cancer

  Here in glade and dingle sweet

  Ye may find a close retreat:

  Can ye find a softer bed

  Thank the moss that here is spread?

  Arthur Waite, Collected Poems

  The Four of Cups reflects the contemplative mind because the stability of the emotions is expressed via number and suit. Four offers emotional structure. Calm thoughts prevail. A still mind creates space for discovery and possibility. The figure sits beneath a tree. A magical hand holding a cup materializes out of thin air. Buddha, the founder of Buddhism whose Sanskrit name means “awakened one,” is said to have sat beneath the bodhi (bo) tree to gain enlightenment. He achieved enlightenment through the quieting of his mind. To quiet the mind and meditate, the practitioner allows emotions and thoughts to come and go without acting upon them. They become the active observer of their own consciousness.

  Buddhism’s Four Noble Truths can be applied to each of the four cups. The first is the truth of suffering (life is painful). The second is the truth of the cause of suffering (others and ourselves). The third is the truth of the end of suffering (control of our mind and senses). The fourth and final truth is the truth of the path that leads out of suffering (transcendence). Ultimately, these truths lead us back to the simple yet complex notion that each of us is in control of our inner life. We can embrace this truth only when we release the ego, which seeks identification through outer means, patterns, and habits. Cups’ emotional qualities, especially deeper, darker emotions like irritation, resentment, and anger, are often the source of great pain. Learning to control thoughts surrounding pain, or, conversely, letting emotions pass without reacting to them, brings us closer to the Buddhist ideal.

  The thoughtful Four of Cups is often interpreted as a card of complacency. A simple message moves through the card, reminding the viewer to look up. Notice what is right in front of you. An opportunity is at hand, but it may be missed. It is impossible to observe everything happening around you at once. We can only focus on a few things at a time to avoid sensory overload. However, we can choose what we focus on. We can decide what is worth our

  attention and energy. The Four of Cups offers an opportunity to re-examine potentials surrounding you. It reminds us to remain open to the unexpected.

  Waite tells us the figure is unsatisfied when he states, “His expression notwithstanding is one of discontent with his environment.” The Book T offers a clue to Waite’s reasoning: “Success or pleasure approaching their end…some drawbacks to pleasure implied.” Waite goes on to explain, “This is also a card of blended pleasure,” and in doing so shares the esoteric title of the card. Blended pleasure can be an experience of delight complete with the knowledge that it will soon end. It is the infusion of pleasure with other qualities.

  The Golden Dawn grew alongside the Theosophical movement, which drew heavily upon Buddhist practice. Pamela would have been aware of yogic and Hindu tradition. Pamela inserts a mini ace into her illustration with a mysterious hand appearing from a cloud. Three cups sit at the bottom of the card. All cups are empty. As with all emptiness, you are free to fill the cup with whatever quality you like or leave it open to creative possibility.

  Waite’s Divinatory Meanings: Weariness, disgust, aversion, imaginary vexations, as if the wine of this world had caused satiety only; another wine, as if a fairy gift, is now offered the wastrel, but he sees no consolation therein. This is also a card of blended pleasure.

  Reversed: Novelty, presage, new instruction, new relations.

  Five of Cups

  Lord of Loss in Pleasure—Mars in Scorpio—Stage Card

  But if the perfect joy of daily life

  Some transient sorrow sears,

  Thy holy function falling on the strife

  Melts pain to happy tears.

  Arthur Waite, Collected Poems

  The Five of Cups is filled with a dark and deviant presence. Emotional challenges reverberate through the card. The Five of Cups is often considered the card of addiction due to the emotional and chemical basis of dependence. Three cups, turned to the side, represent loss. They ooze a mysterious liquid. Two standing cups remain to the figure’s right side. It is unclear what they hold. The figure considers the abyss while draped in melancholic black. His back is turned to the upright cups. Will the figure embrace the cups or will he move toward the bridge stretching across the river? Does salvation exist on the other side? How many of us have worn the cloak of sadness and tears? Will he embrace transformation and choose light instead of dark or will he return to learn this lesson again? If we are wise and learn from our deepest sorrows, they will provide context for happiness. Do we go back for more or do we say enough is enough?

  Rivers mark distinct boundary lines; they are often the thresholds between lands and countries. Rivers and bridges are metaphorical devices offering the opportunity to “cross over” or to traverse a “bridge over troubled water.” They provide movement between lands, from the living to the dead, between the conscious and unconscious or from bad to good and vice versa. Bridges help us cross to a new form of being when moving from the known to the unknown. A bridge, like a door or a gate, offers the possibility of leaving something or someone behind.

  Waite writes of the Five of Cups in his article “The Tarot: A Wheel of Fortune.” He states it is “the card of heritage diverted,” suggesting an inheritance or legacy, symbolized by the manor house across the river, was denied. Yet nothing stops the figure from moving across the bridge to claim what is rightfully his. This card can represent a person who is feeling sorry for themselves or a person who feels as if life owes them something. Waite describes a “life emptied of joy,” matching the dark quality of the cloak.

  Waite notes in The Pictorial Key that for “some interpreters it is a card of marriage, but not without bitterness or frustration. “ His explanation links the Five of Cups with the Five of Pentacles, also often seen as a marriage card linked with the idea of traveling with another person through “thick and thin.” Both cards reflect the challenging downsides of long-term relationships.

  Struggle is apparent in all of the minor arcana five cards because the five marks the halfway point. Struggle ensues. Challenge erupts. The esoteric title of the card is “Loss of Pleasure.” The Book T states this card is “Death, or end of pleasure.” Joy has vanished. The essence of flow embodied by the Ace of Cups has run its course. Celebration turns to desolation. The question remains: how will you fill the void? How long will you don the cloak?

  Waite’s Divinatory Meanings: It is a card of loss, but something remains over; three have been taken, but two are left; it is a card of inheritance, patrimony, transmission, but not corresponding to expectations; with some interpreters it is a card of marriage, but not without bitterness or frustration.

  Reversed: News, alliances, affinity, consanguinity, ancestry, return, false projects.

  Six of Cups

  Lord of Pleasure—Sun in Scorpio

  Old voices grow faint, from the summit they fall;

  Your measures enchant me, I come at your call.

  Arthur Waite, Collected Poems

  After the darkness and despair of the Five of Cups, hope is reborn inside the Six of Cups.

  Two childlike figures express gifts of the heart and the warmth of the soul blossoms like flowers. Cups, once empty, now overflow with beauty. The tangible nature of flowers and foliage suggest the manifestation of desire and results you can count on. The Six of Cups contains the antidote to the bleakness and despair implied in the Five of Cups. Give to others what you wish to receive. Make the first gesture, make your move.

  Implied separation and hierarchy exists between the t
wo figures, just as in all minor arcana six cards. The boyish figure towers over a diminutive girl. Their positioning indicates separation, authority, and the assumption of power. The minor arcana demonstrates a progression of numbers, each growing higher, larger, and closer to its final goal of complete manifestation in the tenth card. The maturity, lessons, and history are now evolving among the higher cards. With this gift comes great power and wisdom. It reflects the nature of the linked Sephiroth on the Tree of Life, each flowing into the next.

  A figure, a soldier or adult suggesting authority and law, walks away from the scene. It marks the exiting factor of the situation. The past loosens its grip. A habit has been banished. Limits are removed and freedom ensues. Qualities of safety and protection are evoked from the protective courtyard. It is one of only four cards of the seventy-eight-card deck Pamela drew inside the environs of a town—the Ten of Pentacles is at the threshold, and the King of Pentacles and Two of Wands reside inside a tower or wall.

  Waite describes the card as if looking at a different picture when he writes “children in an old garden.” The children are obviously in a courtyard or town square, not a garden. This comment and others have led tarotists to believe that Waite was only interested in the design of the majors. They posit the minor’s designs were entirely in Pamela’s capable hands.

  Waite offers dual interpretations for the Six of Cups. His first is nostalgic: “A card of the past and memories, looking back…but coming from the past; things that have vanished.” Framing his nostalgia as coming from the past offers an explanation that lacks the maturity of hindsight,

  so the card simply speaks of what has disappeared. The second offering, “new relations, new knowledge, new environment and then the children are disporting in an unfamiliar precinct,” suggests the children are delighting in the quality of newness. It is as if the cup is reborn as a new toy or object of fascination now that a challenge has been overcome.

  Waite’s Divinatory Meanings: A card of the past and of memories, looking back, as—for example—on childhood; happiness, enjoyment, but coming rather from the past; things that have vanished. Another reading reverses this, giving new relations, new knowledge, new environment, and then the children are disporting in an unfamiliar precinct.

  Reversed: The future, renewal, that which will come to pass presently.

  Seven of Cups

  Lord of Illusory Success—Venus in Scorpio

  Fold all thy jewell’d shores in mist

  From Cape to austral pole:

  With brilliant, topaz, amethyst,

  Tempt eyes—but not the soul!

  Arthur Waite, Collected Poems

  The beautiful, beguiling Seven of Cups shows a figure gazing at seven cups floating in the sky. Eden Grey’s definition of this card, “building castles in the air,” is a simple catchphrase. It is easy to associate with the image. It suggests unreal flights of fancy and wishful thinking. It matches the esoteric title of the card, the “Lord of Illusory Success.” Every great invention and achievement was imagined before it became real. You can’t desire a thing or create something new if you can’t first imagine yourself having it. Our imagination is our most valuable asset.

  The Seven of Cups offers a wide variety of choices, options, and opportunities for the reader. The image might call to mind a movie theater where a man stands silhouetted against a projected screen. Filmmaking was still in its infancy when the RWS deck was created. London’s first movie house opened in 1896, thirteen years before the publication of the RWS deck. It showed grainy, silent, black-and-white short films. Given the esoteric title of the card, “Lord of Illusory Success,” and Waite’s own description as “images of reflection, sentiment and imagination,” it is helpful to look at this card as a moving picture. Is it a theatrical projection or is the reader projecting the cups from their imagination? Have they drawn these cups before them like cards in a reading? Does the image spring from the figure or a higher power? Are we focusing on what we want for ourselves or listening to others who think they know better?

  Waite calls this the card of “fairy favors.” Waite would later edit the book Poems and Songs of Fairyland, a European collection of fairy poetry and songs. Each cup specifically connects to a major arcana card. Examine the Seven of Cups image before reading any further. See if you can figure out which major arcana card each cup connects to. Pamela offers visual clues and astrological hints.

  Waite did not order planetary associations. Mathers ordered them in alignment with the Hebrew alphabet.

  Beginning from the top left and moving right:

  Cup #1—The female head corresponds to the Empress and the planet Venus (recall the sign of Venus on the Empress’s garments).

  Cup #2—The veiled and glowing figure is the High Priestess and the Moon (recall the High Priestess’s Moon crown).

  Cup #3—The snake who escapes the cup is the Magician and connects to Mercury (recall the Magician’s snake belt that devours itself around the Magician’s waist).

  Beginning lower left and moving right:

  Cup #4—The castle on high rocks reflects the Tower card and connects to Mars (recall how the Tower is placed atop a mountain peak).

  Cup #5—Glittering jewels reflect the Wheel of Fortune and connect to Jupiter (recall that the wheel represents fate, fortune, and destiny).

  Cup #6—The wreath reflects the World card and connects to Saturn (recall the World dancer’s wreath). The skull is the illusion of success holding deceptive qualities.

  Cup #7—The crouching dragon reflects the Sun card and connects to the sun itself (recall that dragon’s breath holds the incendiary power of the sun).

  Waite’s Divinatory Meanings: Fairy favours, images of reflection, sentiment, imagination, things seen in the glass of contemplation; some attainment in these degrees, but nothing permanent or substantial is suggested.

  Reversed: Desire, will, determination, project.

  Eight of Cups

  Lord of Abandoned Success—Saturn in Pisces—Stage Card

  Now the mild moon wax and dwindle,

  Voice of winds keep calling,

  While the long paths wind before me,

  Falling, rising, falling.

  Arthur Waite, Collected Poems

  The Eight of Cups carries powerful magic and evocative quiet. Waite tells us the card “speaks for itself on the surface.” A figure moves upward. Silent water ripples beneath a sun and moon. A strange twilight of mystical colors is on the card, a rare solar eclipse as the moon passes before the sun, blotting out light and casting strange double shadows on the landscape. Did the figure materialized out of a cup? Two stacks of cups lie at the forefront. The figure walks away from them. A close inspection reveals the line of the scrim. The Eight of Cups is a stage card. We are looking at a painted backdrop, not a real figure at all. Is the situation an illusion or does it depict reality?

  The “Lord of Abandoned Success” is the esoteric title of the Eight of Cups. This reading suggests the figure leaves behind what is no longer needed even if it was something he fought for. Are you satisfied with what you have created? Would you be willing to abandon all? Will you search for something more or stick with the status quo? The element of risk inherent in abandoning all is an essence of bravery. The number eight connects this card to the Strength card. Rumi tells us, “Don’t grieve, anything you lose comes round in another form.” It is brave to walk away from a situation, person, or thing that you value and be secure in the knowledge that something similar or better will come into your life. When we are brave and test this principle, we find it to be true. We find love again. Happiness comes back around. We leave what is comfortable, secure in the knowledge we can do better, strive harder, and create something extraordinary. Our faith and hard work are rewarded. The Eight of Cups implores us to release bonds of fear and desperation to forge new ground.

  The card’s fig
ure connects to the Hermit card, reflecting the Hermit at the beginning of his journey up the mountain. Walking stick in hand, the Hermit moves toward a lofty summit, away from what has been gained. It is the essence of pilgrimage, the sacred journey of religious devotion. He moves toward spiritual heights, away from worldly goods. It is the “high road”

  and “the road less traveled” and all that those phrases imply. What roads have you traveled? What is your current path? Where are you going? Have you plotted your course? What is it you must do this very moment? What can you leave behind?

  Waite reminds us the man “is deserting the Cups of his felicity, enterprise, undertaking or previous concern.” What was once important has lost its luster. We focus on something new. Waite says that “a matter which has been thought to be important is really of slight consequence.” The transitory nature of life reveals this lesson repeatedly. When what was important, even immediate, fades away, we are confronted with new challenges and opportunities. The lessons we carry bear import and move us higher than we ever imagined.

  Waite’s Divinatory Meanings: The card speaks for itself on the surface, but other readings are entirely antithetical—giving joy, mildness, timidity, honour, modesty. In practice, it is usually found that the card shews the decline of a matter, or that a matter which has been thought to be important is really of slight consequence—either for good or evil.

  Reversed: Great joy, happiness, feasting.

  Nine of Cups

  Lord of Material Happiness—Jupiter in Pisces

  Easy comes and easy goes

  Tinkles, twitters, sparkles, flows;

  Nothing matters, no one knows.

  Arthur Waite, Collected Poems

  The gleeful Nine of Cups says, “Your wish will come true!” Your dream is granted. A genie sits, arms crossed, and with a wink and a nod to make your fantasy a reality. Nine cups, the number of wish fulfillment, fan behind the genie in an arc shape. The cups foreshadow the cup rainbow shape appearing in the Ten of Cups card as the cycle nears completion. The nine cups sit on a blue curtain that hangs over a table. Could there be additional hidden meaning to a seemingly simplistic card?