March 14, 2010 - The Two of Cups

I've been reading David Whyte's new book, The Three Marriages, a book about the ongoing conversation within and between our relationships with others, work and ourselves. Since conversation is the focus of my own upcoming presentation, I thought it might be nice to get this other point of view. I wasn't prepared for the emotions that would come up just reading this book, which led me to ask again about relationship in my life.

On the Two of Cups, a man and woman gaze at one another. Each holds before them a cup of their emotions, a loving cup. There is hope and a yearning, not desire, not yet. Just a maybe, a perhaps tinged with please. It is the basic equation of 1 + 1 and the balanced satisfaction of the result, 2. This is the card lovers want to see in a reading for it promises much.

When the Two cups comes up it speaks of connections made, celebrating a marriage, cementing a friendship, establishing a partnership. Now maybe you already have one. Maybe what you have doesn't look as you hoped or imagined but holds deeper understandings of working together, sharing, helping and being helped. I don't know what this means for me, whether something is coming, or whether I should come to appreciate what I have. This has been my question and sometimes I wonder if I will ever have it answered.

The Two of Cups can also be about healing a severed relationship, letting bygones be bygones, forgiving and forgetting. This too applies and seems to be occurring slowly but surely, years after the deepest hurt of my life. Not really sure what to make of it. Is it just about healing or is there something more? Is it time at last to let go or is this what we are, now, the deepest of friends? Another question I have no answers for. All I seem to be able to do is wake up each day and let it unfold and see where it takes me.

The Two of cups is also about acknowledging an attraction, letting yourself be drawn in, to move toward someone. Sometimes I wonder if that's possible. Having been so hurt so late in life I wonder if I have it in me to risk again. Don't know. This too I guess I will find out as the days go by and my life unfolds.

In the Jane Austen Tarot, the Two of Teacups possesses a slightly different spin from the traditional Tarot meaning. Attraction is there. The potential for love is there too. Time will tell what will come of it. The card asks you to stay focused on the here and now. See the other as he or she truly is, not your fantasy. Stay balanced, no matter how infatuated you are and you will be infatuated; it is the nature of the this card, Venus in Cancer, to lose itself in a sea of emotion.

Not sure what this all means but I guess I'l find out. I'll keep you posted.