by Brian Clark
The Five of Cups: Ophiuchus, The Serpent Bearer
Many of the stars in the constellation of Ophiuchus occupy the zodiacal belt, periodically prompting astronomers and skeptics to suggest that there are actually thirteen signs of the zodiac. In fact, the constellation takes up more zodiacal space than contemporary Scorpio. At times, it appears the serpent bearer is firmly astride the scorpion, his foot crushing it into the ground.
Ophiuchus means “he who holds the serpent.” To the ancient Greeks, the serpent bearer was Asclepius, placed in the heavens by his grandfather, Zeus, who had struck him down with one of his lightening bolts. Later myth suggests that Asclepius had restored life to a fallen hero, infuriating Pluto, the god of Death, who demanded that Zeus retract Asclepius’ immortality. Ophiuchus reminds us of the Greek god of healing, whose cult in the ancient world developed alongside Hippocratic medicine. Two streams of medical practice existed in the ancient world, one sacred and the other secular. Asclepius holds the caduceus; the intertwining serpents symbolize panacea, the god’s ability to cure all sickness. This motif dates back even before ancient Greece. Scholars have traced the image of the caduceus back to the design on a Mesopotamian king’s sacrificial cup.
The Five of Cups depicts Asclepius, both hero and god, petitioned during time of illness. To the ancients, illness was a divine calling, the god’s way of making the soul’s malcontent known through the body. Psychologically, this parallels psychosomatic illness, as the bodily symptom serves as the voice for psyche’s ills. Illness prompted the ancient Greeks to make a pilgrimage to one of Asclepius’ sacred healing sanctuaries, the foundation stones for our contemporary healing and psychotherapy clinics.
Asclepius is deemed the founder of the medical tradition, which he inherited from his divine father Apollo. The first physician, Hippocrates, honored this tradition, claiming an ancestral link to Asclepius. In the Asclepian tradition, the medical remedy was not prescribed by the doctor. Self-healing was promoted, by establishing contact with the patient’s internal psychic images. Like many heroes, Asclepius was raised by Chiron who mentored the young god in the arts of medicine, herbal healing, homeopathy, and surgery. It was Hermes who brought Asclepius to the wise centaur’s cave after he had been rescued from the womb of his dead mother. Snatched from the clutches of death, Asclepius’ miraculous birth echoes the shamanistic motif of the healer called to his vocation through his own suffering and encounter with death. Like a shaman, Asclepius had the power to retrieve souls from the underworld. The goddess Athena bequeathed two vials of the Gorgon’s blood to Asclepius. Blood from the right side of her body restored life, while the vial from the left side brought death. Asclepius personifies the mysterious duality of wounding and healing.
Asclepius created a therapeutic space where the healing power of the psyche could be activated through dream images. With the Five of Cups we meet this powerful daimon that reminds us of the rich and creative inner world of dreams and symbols. The second developmental phase of Scorpio is ruled by Neptune, the astrological symbol that confirms the urge to embrace the divine. Neptune’s presence with the Five of Cups suggests we are in the realm of the imagination. However, we must be aware that the language of the soul reveals itself through paradoxical images and magical symbols. Sacrificing one’s ego identity to the gods is also necessary. With this card, surrender to the ego’s way of knowing facilitates entry into the soulful domain of divine possibilities. With this combination of Scorpio and Neptune we are pulled into other inner worlds of the dream and the imagination, in order to restore well-being.
The Five of Cups illustrates Ophiuchus calling us to the inner sanctuary because the split between soul and body has widened and the imbalance may ignite a healing crisis. Surrounding him are the five cups, which suggest a creative outcome to the process. The healing symbol of Scorpio, and the glyph for Neptune, symbolize the imaginative process of the divine. Wounding is an archetypal aspect of the individuation process. Drawing this card alerts us to the possibility that well-being may be restored. First the wounded feelings, the sense of disappointment, and the pain of suffering must be acknowledged. Next, we need to journey to a sacred space to honor the soul, with the intention of embracing the inner world of psyche’s images. The Five of Cups draws us into the liminal space between the wounding and the healing where we can restore our sense of self through interaction with the gods of the imagination. When this card appears, we are beckoned into this inner realm to activate our own healing powers.
The Six of Cups: Hercules
The motif of the snake continues to be part of our journey, as it is also linked to the eponymous hero of the constellation representing the Six of Cups. When Hercules was an infant, two serpents slithered into the cradles where he and his twin brother Iphicles were sleeping. The snakes had been sent by Hera to destroy the newborns. However, Hercules grabbed the serpents with his bare hands and strangled them to death. Even from the cradle, Hercules’ enormous strength and heroic prowess was evident.
To the ancient Greeks, Hercules was their archetypal hero. The Delphic oracle gave him the name Heracles meaning ‘the glory of Hera’ as he was destined for glory despite the enmity of the goddess. To the Romans he was known as Hercules. From the 5th Century b.c.e, the hero was associated with the constellation directly north of the serpent bearer, Ophiuchus. Previously, the Babylonians had known the star group as their heroic counterpart, Gilgamesh. Underfoot is the constellation Draco, the archetypal dragon, another serpentine image that serves as nemesis to the hero. The card depicts Hercules holding the club in his right hand and wearing the lion skin draped over the back of his head, two symbols consistently used to depict the hero. In his left hand, he triumphantly holds the golden apples of the Hesperides, another victorious symbol. The luminous hues of the Northern Crown, its neighboring constellation, shine in the background, celebrating the apotheosis of the hero.
Like the twelve phases of the sun’s journey through the zodiacal signs, Hercules’ twelve labors serve as metaphors for the seasons of individuation. Even before Hercules undertook these specific tasks, his strength, heroism and rage had become evident through his early character. Hercules embraced his fate and completed the twelve labors to purify the madness that plagued him.
While Hercules may represent the heroic triumph of the ego against the monstrous forces of the unconscious, there are faint traces in his myth that connect the hero with the shaman. Before the ego dominated the rational and visible sphere, the shaman-hero knew the powers of the arcane world and its mysterious rites. Magic, healing, and the ability to cross over into polar worlds were aspects of the ancient hero’s mystical vocation.
Hercules’ first labor was to kill the Nemean Lion. While this symbolizes the taming of the instinctual life, the lion’s pelt Hercules dons is a vestige of an ancient shamanistic personality, the master of animals. Hercules lost a finger in the struggle with the lion. The severing of the finger is symbolic of dismemberment, a motif in shamanism. On his last labor, Hercules ventures into the underworld in order to bring the hound of Hades, Cerberus, up to the above world without harming him. Crossing worlds and journeys to the nether world were important thematic aspects of the heroic journey face the void of death. To master this task, Hercules was mentored by Chiron, who taught the hero warrior-wisdom and the art of astrology.
Hercules twelve labors were not the only times Hercules was enslaved by his destiny. Omphale, the Queen of Lydia, purchased Hercules as a slave. While serving the Queen, he dressed in woman’s clothes exchanging his rough persona for a soft and receptive one. Heroic cross-dressing is symbolic of the ability to cross over into the other world, embracing the other side to redeem what had been lost to consciousness. From the bright light of the masculine heroic ego, Hercules crosses over to his feminine side to experience the polarities within himself.
The Six of Cups introduces us to the great hero Hercules. Surrounding him are the artifac
ts of his heroic persona. His knees are bent and his head is bowed in reverence to the goddess who embodied the ancient mysteries and utilized its gifts of divination and healing. The Moon governs this developmental phase and represents the hero’s anima, his soulful feminine counterpart. Beneath the feet of the hero is the dragon. These symbols suggest that heroic ego derives more from feminine integrity and mystical wisdom than from worldly conquests. When this card is drawn, it reveals that the individual is faced with a heroic labor, yet what will nurture and provide strength is an internal relationship with one’s own feelings. While the ego is facing trials in the outer world, it is nurtured by the wisdom of the feminine anima, and is guided by its symbols, which divine the pathway forward.
The Seven of Cups: Al Risha,
The Knot of Pisces
With the Seven of Cups, we cross the cusp into the third water sign and the last sign of the zodiac. For the first and only time in Celestial Tarot, we encounter a single star, rather than a cluster of stars. This is Al Risha, a binary star that marks the knot in the cord connecting the two tails of the fish of Pisces. To the Arabs the star signified the cord. To Ptolemy it represented the knot that joined the two celestial fish together. One fish swims in the direction of the North Celestial Pole, while its eternal companion swims westward above the equator. Almost at right angles to each other, Al Risha holds the tension of the fish, pulling in opposite directions. With the Seven of Cups, we are alerted to the need to hold the tension between two directions. On a spiritual level, this could suggest holding the tension between the urge to transcend the mundane and the need to remain engaged with the everyday. On an emotional level, this might mean feeling in the middle between two loved ones or two conflicting needs. The Seven of Cups reminds us of the cosmic knot, a central point where we are able to give rein to opposing ways of being.
The knotted cord depicted on this card symbolizes an enclosure. This may be a closed ring of power, a sense of divine protection, or a psychological encirclement. With this fixed star, it also may focus us on the meeting point between two ways of being, or two directions of knowledge. The Gordian knot has come to represent an intricate problem. Gordius, the King of Phrygia, tied a knot that could only be undone by the future ruler of Asia. Alexander the Great used his sword to cut through the chaotic tangled cords to lay claim to his domain. Untangling a knot is akin to finding a center, a haven, or a point of reconciliation. The knot has also become synonymous with magic through its association with binding. In classical Greece, binding was an aspect of magical practice designed to attract and bind one’s beloved. The knot symbolizes an attachment where the bonds of love have become so entangled or enmeshed that they need to be separated or cut.
Latin poet Hyginus mused that this heavenly ribbon was the cord Venus tied to Cupid so they would never be separated. His myth suggested that the two fish were the goddess and her son who transformed themselves into fishes to escape the dragon-monster Typhon. Venus, having arisen out of the sea, knew she and her son would be safe by plunging themselves back into water’s protective embrace. As they sank below the surface of the river Venus tied them together with the heavenly cord. Typhon symbolizes archaic vestiges from the uncivilized past. When Typhon frightens the goddess and her son, they regress back to a primal shape. The Piscean realm of the unconscious may overwhelm the personality to the point where individuals are obsessed by a psychological relic from their past.
This card marks a crossroads. On an oracular level, it suggests we are standing at the knot, feeling pulled in two directions. Should we be logical and come up for air? Or should we swim along the heart’s path and be taken in its currents and submerged in feelings? The Seven of Cups offers many choices but suggests that the wisest decision is to find balance between the extreme directions. Both routes are possible. Pisces reminds us that confusion and self-deception are possible outcomes if we are not centered. Neptune reminds us that we are at the crossroads of fantasy and reality and that dreams do manifest when there is a bond strong enough to manifest the dream.
With the symbols of Pisces and Neptune we are reminded of the longing to surrender to the Divine, to merge with the infinite. Therefore, this card reminds us of the knot that binds us to the incarnate world, symbolizing the necessity to secure our attachments and contain our feelings. It alerts us to the need to discriminate between an illusion and an inspiration. However, the card also denotes a nodal time in either a relationship or life stage where it is important to be bonded but not bound, clarifying the necessity to cut through the emotional ties which are chaotic and entangled. The Seven of Cups alerts us to the possibility of enmeshment in a relationship. On the other hand, it also signals the recognition of an eternal bond of love, therefore the individual needs to be centered in his or her feelings in order to know the difference.
The Eight of Cups: Cepheus
The myth of Cepheus and his wife Cassiopeia was first introduced with the Ace of Wands. The cluster of stars named for the king belongs to the group of northern constellations retelling the popular classical myth of Andromeda and Perseus. Cepheus has an important history dating back to Mesopotamia where the constellation represented the King of Babylon, the earthly surrogate of the heavenly King Baal. In Celestial Tarot, Cepheus is the male sovereign who leads us on our inner journey of emotional reflection to explore what needs to be relinquished in our close relationships and attachments. On a symbolic level, the king has the mandate of the people, but is also the representative of heaven. As spokesman for the Gods, the king is the human link between the social sphere and the cosmos, acting as the earthly surrogate of the godhead.
Cepheus’ closest relationships were with his wife and daughter, who were cursed by Poseidon. Cepheus consulted the oracle of Ammon in order to receive advice about how to cleanse his kingdom of the god’s curse. Similarly to Laomedon, the King of Troy, Cepheus was told by the oracle to sacrifice his daughter in order to appease the monster and end the cycle of devastation. Many mythic traditions contain the theme of the sacrificed son or daughter, the embodiment of innocence and purity, needed to cleanse the soul. Andromeda, as the sacrificed victim, is the anima surrogate for her father’s innocence and purity. For the ancient Greeks, sacrifice was an act of expiating the spiritual impurity that had offended the god.
This ancient tradition is revealed through the Eight of Cups, which confronts the question of what needs to be sacrificed in one’s life in order to restore a harmonious spiritual relationship. The theme of sacrifice is also reflected through the constellation of Cepheus. On a psychological level, the king symbolizes the ego ideal, akin to the sage or hero who seeks perfection or enlightenment. The king represented by the Eight of Cups is expected to sacrifice some part of his self, ego, habits, and attachments in order to live more peacefully and authentically.
This card marks the beginning of the second decanate of Pisces, ruled by the Moon. As the king’s daughter, Andromeda represents both the Moon and the king’s anima, dual vessels of feelings and memories. The astrological Moon symbolizes the psychological storehouse of incomplete feelings from past-severed relationships, including unexpressed traumas and even cherished memories and sentiments. Pisces reveals that these feelings may have been over-idealized, forgiven too quickly, or selectively forgotten. Therefore, the convergence of these symbols suggests that the sacrifice needs to involve past feelings, expectations, or ideals, which no longer support our contemporary life. Naïve wishes, innocent fantasies, and childlike longings may disguise the feelings that need to be examined and released. Therefore, when the Eight of Cups appears it may signal a period of withdrawal, or even depression, while these feelings are being processed. Often the central trigger for this self-examination is a relationship that needs honest reevaluation. With the Eight of Cups, it is important to recognize that the pools of feelings may have become polluted with unexpressed desires and unlived fantasies, which need to be let go lest the waters stagnate.
The Nine of Cups: Andromeda
Since antiquity, Andromeda has been a muse for poets, authors, painters, and playwrights, inspiring imaginations with the mythic motif of the woman in chains, rescued by the hero. This figure of the chained woman has been consistently projected onto the constellation of Andromeda. She is princess to the Prince Perseus in the court of her father King Cepheus and mother Queen Cassiopeia; all four representing neighboring constellations.