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3.1 Open Cups

Cups

Activity

  1. Review the Significations of Pentacles below.
  2. Organize your Pentacles from Ace to King.
  3. Take some time to look at each card and feel the story of the Pentacles.
  4. OPTIONAL: Make the headings for the 14 encyclopedia entries for Pentacles. You will have the chance to fill them out as you go through the following lessons.

Signification of Cups

The Suit of Cups corresponds to the deeper yearnings, emotions, and unconscious processes in our lives, such as:

  • Love
  • Emotion
  • Connections
  • Relationships

The Cups also depict the emotional journey of life events, from initial excitement and bliss to boredom and disillusionment, stability and tough choices to lasting happiness. The Court of Cups represents a dreamer (Princess), lover (Knight), confidant (Queen), and counselor (King).

The Swords have several other correspondences that can be helpful to keep in mind:

  • The element of Water
  • The West
  • The 10 Sefirah in the Realm of Briah, or Creative World. (Reference this lesson for more on the Tree of Life.)
    • Note: Some systems consider the Cups to be the Realm of Yetzirah and the Swords to be the Realm of Briah.
  • The Zodiac Signs of Cancer, Scorpio, and Pisces.

In developing our intuitive understanding of the Cups, these correspondences can give us meaningful hints at how they relate to the question at hand.