Manifestation with the Watery Suit of Cups

This morning I taught a class on YouTube about the Suit of Cups. One of the things I love about teaching these sorts of classes is that I always get new ideas of how the cards work. Tarot is infinitely expansive; there are always new ways to see, understand, and process the cards.

My big unexpected take-away from the class was about how much we can use the element of Water and the suit of Cups in our practices of manifestation.

When I speak of manifestation I am speaking of prayer, of Law of Attraction, of Creative Visualization, and of magick. Use whichever words feel most comfortable to you. The premise is the same, however we might speak of it. When we want to bring something in to being, we must imagine it and see it clearly in our mind’s eye. In this way things move from thought to form.

Had I given much consideration to it, I might have more easily seen the suit of Pentacles as a suit of manifestation, since it is of the Earth element, and therefore already solid and real. I might have seen the suit of Swords as a suit of manifestation, because it is the suit of Air, and therefore related to the powers of the mind, where all manifestation begins. I might have even seen the suit of Wands, because of the passionate, spiritual motivation that we derive from the element of Fire.

But did I ever see Water as manifestation? Well, the Seven of Cups is one of the two cards that I strongly see a card of manifestation. The other is the Two of Wands. When I see either of these cards, I am inclined to ask my client to consider what they want to manifest at this time, and to encourage them to put their energy into bringing their desires into being. If both cards appear together, the need and ability to manifest is especially strong, and should not be ignored.

Truly, all four tarot Aces invite manifestation, and it was with the Ace of Cups that our discussion of manifestation began. Each Ace offers a beginning, an essence, a concept, and a jumping-off point. Each Ace is a seed from which something might grow.

What came to me very clearly was this. Everything I have ever learned about manifestation and magick includes a specific central point. The emotion that we put into our vision is paramount in our ability to bring that vision into being. Without feeling it, without emotion driving it, the manifestation will not have life.

While some tarot cards can speak of, and offer opportunity for, manifestation, we can use any tarot card to bring something in to being. Each card carries an energy. Tarot magick is simply the practice of using specifically chosen cards to bring us the energy we want, or to banish from us the energy that doesn’t serve us.

When we study the suit of Cups we might see instruction on how to channel our emotions toward manifestation. We might specifically see a story of manifesting more love in our lives, and on the planet.

What do you see about manifestation in the suit of Cups?

Let Me Justify Your Massive Tarot Collection

In many social media tarot groups, we joke about our ‘tarot addiction’ as we cheerfully order decks and show off pictures of our new decks as they arrive to our homes.

I don’t love the term ‘tarot addiction’, for a couple of reasons. First, psychic addiction is a real thing, and something that we professional readers need work to identify and discourage in our clients. Second, actual addiction to drugs and alcohol is grievous and life-destroying. Tarot deck collecting is joyful and healing.

Yet, sometimes we feel a bit guilty about the time and money we spend on our collections. Sometimes well-meaning loved ones might try to discourage us. I would argue that tarot-deck collecting can be relatively inexpensive, fun, meaningful, and healing.

So, here are nine reasons to justify loving and growing your tarot collection. You’re welcome!

Building Collections is a Popular Hobby

No one bats an eye at people who collect figurines, concert tee shirts or beer steins. We collected trading cards, collectible card games, Barbies, Bionics and Littlest Pet Shop sets as children; collecting tarot is simply the adult version of what brought us such joy when we were young.

Tarot Supports Artists

So often we bemoan the lack of support artists receive in our society. When you buy a new tarot deck you are very often supporting a living, breathing artist who needs and appreciates that support.

Tarot Supports Small Business

Even the larger tarot publishing houses are typically family-owned small businesses. When you buy a tarot deck, you are usually supporting a small business, or an independent entrepreneur.

Tarot Decks are Inspiring

Each tarot deck is a set of seventy-eight unique works of art. Most of us have in our collection many more decks that we actual use in readings. This is a reason that our loved ones might discourage us from buying decks, or that we might scold ourselves for buying decks we ‘never use’. Yet, there are many ways to use a tarot deck. Even if we rarely read with a particular deck, looking at its images may inform or inspire us.

Tarot Decks Help Us Become Better Tarot Readers

Tarot readers tend to divide into three categories. There are those who read with one deck and one deck only. There are those who read with multiple decks and allow each deck to speak with its own voice. Then there is the category into which I fall, where we allow each deck we know to inspire our readings, regardless of the deck we happen to be working with at the time.

Whichever category you fall into, the more decks you see, the more you will understand tarot, and the better your readings will be.

There are Multiple Tarot Traditions

Tarot breaks into three primary traditions, and several sub-traditions. While we may prefer to read decks that honor a particular tradition, collecting decks that represent all the traditions of tarot can help us understand tarot history, and tarot as a whole.

There are Other Cartomancy Decks

Why stop at tarot? There are oracle decks, Lenormand decks and Kipper decks. For those of us who love cartomancy, art, and mysticism, there is no end to the inspiration we can find as we enjoy the images and discover their meanings.

We are Always in Search of the Quintessential Deck

While it is fair to say that most of the decks we collect will not become a favorite reading deck, once in a while a new acquisition will earn that rare position in our hearts. We are always in search of that special deck, just as we may have searched for the rare Pokémon card as kids. Are we disappointed when a new deck doesn’t grab us the way we had hoped? Sure, a little. But that is part of the fun of collection-building, isn’t it?

Tarot Decks are Tradable and Sellable

If we end up with a deck we really don’t care to have as part of our collection, we can easily trade or sell it. When we do that, we might make another tarot enthusiast very happy, and we might make a new friend!

Sympathetic Resonance in Tarot

Sympathetic Resonance is a term we use in music. It’s a harmonic phenomenon that happens when, for example, a string on your guitar vibrates when it’s not being played because you have hit a note that has a harmonic likeness.

We use the term ‘resonance’ when we speak of tarot readings and psychic work to mean that something that comes up in a reading affects you, makes sense to you, or brings you to an ‘aha moment’.

An interesting fact about that sort of resonance is that it can happen even when the reading is not specifically for you.

This happens in group readings like psychic galleries or social media live broadcasts. It happens when readers do general cards for the week, or for astrological signs. Sometimes a message, though it wasn’t specifically meant for you, lands home in a way that is impactful and helpful.

Any tarot reader who reads for other people, either casually or professionally, can tell you that this happens for us during our readings for others, as well. Sometimes we will be reading for someone and deliver a message that is pertinent to them, but hits home for us, too. Sometimes we will find, hidden in the cards like an Easter egg, a message that seems to be directed to us. Usually we will not reveal to our querent that this has happened. We will simply take the message and mentally file it away for our later rumination.

A mistake that some readers make is to assume that since the message so strongly resonated for them, the reading they are trying to give their querent is actually for and about them, not the querent. This can cause unfortunate and unnecessary confusion.

When we read for others, whether professionally or casually, we must be prepared for the possibility that, sometimes, we will receive a message for ourself wrapped within the reading we are giving our querent.

This can be a tricky situation. It is important that we do not insert ourselves into our clients’ readings. We should, in general, refrain from talking about ourselves, or thinking about ourselves, during the process of reading for a client.

The most profound experience of this sort of resonance I ever had happened many years ago, in the mid-1990s. I was reading casually for a co-worker at a part-time job. She asked about her brother, a teenager, who had serious kidney problems. The cards I pulled for him were not at all encouraging.

I silently asked the cards for another option. I received the Six of Pentacles, which is about charity, the Page of Cups, which can be an offering of love, and the Queen of Wands, my significator. I told my querent not to worry, that her brother would be fine.

The message I received in those three cards was clear. Five months later, I gave my co-worker’s brother my right kidney.

How can we tell when we are receiving a message for ourselves as we read for a client? I assume it feels different for each reader. The trick is to identify what it feels like, and then be willing to silently take and remember the message for later reflection, while staying present for the querent and their reading.

Very often, for me, the feeling is laser-sharp and unmistakable. It is one of the few ways I am clairaudient. It might happen that I will be giving a client some clear advice, and hear strongly within my ear a message like, ‘Physician, heal thyself’. There can be a physical sensation as well, that feels like a percussive thud in my heart chakra.

Good tarot readers have to do a lot of mental multi-tasking. Being able to receive the occasional resonant message delivered during a tarot session is just one of the many possible miracles for which we must hold space.

Compare and Contrast Eight of Cups and Six of Swords

An important exercise to learn and to understand tarot is to compare and contrast two cards which have something in common.

Two important things are true about the language of tarot. One is that each card carries unique energies and interpretations. The second is that each card will have some things in common with a few other cards.

Even beyond obvious associations like elements and numbers, some cards will bear similarities one to another. When cards that have similarities appear in a reading together, their collective meaning can become a theme of the reading.

For newer tarotists, however, these similarities can make it hard to understand the significant differences between the cards.

I’ve discussed this before, most recently in a post that suggests using venn diagrams to figure out similarities and differences between two or more cards.

The Eight of Cups and the Six of Swords are a good pair to try this exercise with. In terms of numbers and elements, they have little in common. Swords are masculine, Cups are feminine. Six and Eight are both even numbers, but not particularly similar in their energy.

Yet, we see enough similarity in these two cards that sometimes newer readers have a difficult time distinguishing their unique energies.

What are the similarities between the Six of Swords and the Eight of Cups?

In the Waite-Smith tradition, both images show motion. Both these cards can convey a sense of travel, either literally or metaphorically. They are usually less about the beginning of an important journey, as the Fool or the Chariot might depict. Instead, both of these cards are about moving away from something, toward something better.

In both of these cards, there can be a sense of needing to move away from emotional difficulty, toward a greater sense of calm.

Both these cards relate to water. The Six of Swords, though an Air card, is in a boat. The Eight of Cups is at a beach.

Both of these cards suggest that there has been some trauma or difficulty in the past.

Both of these cards suggest that it will take some time to move toward something better.

What is unique about the Six of Swords?

Traditional fortune tellers often see this card as predicting a ‘journey over water’. Aleister Crowley called the Six of Swords the card of ‘Science’. Even in the Waite image, we see how the swords of logical thought float over the water of emotion.

The Six of Swords can discuss science and technology.

In the Six of Swords, we are sailing toward smoother waters. This card includes an inherent prediction that things are getting better.

What is unique about the Eight of Cups?

While the Six of Swords seems to be sailing toward something, the Eight of Cups seems to be walking away from something. In this card we see abandonment. The Eight of Cups may refer to the damage done by childhood abandonment. It might suggest that we feel abandoned in a relationship. Or, it might suggest that it is time to abandon an unsuccessful undertaking.

Aleister Crowley called the Eight of Cups ‘Indolence’. From this perspective, we can see that the Eight of Cups might involve a desire to avoid a situation, or something that we don’t have the will or energy to complete.

Often in this card I see the emotional process of healing that comes when we stop trying to fix something that can’t be fixed.

The next time you are stuck trying to understand how two or more similar cards differ from one another, try this simple exercise and see how much you learn about each card’s distinct qualities, as well as their similarities.

Three Things to Try When a Tarot Card Makes No Sense

We all become tarot readings for the same reason. At some point, early in our introduction to tarot, there was a moment when tarot spoke the poignant, unmitigated truth to us in a way that was enlightening and healing.

Yet, there is another unavoidable shared moment with tarot that can shake our faith in the tarot reading process, or at least in our ability to be great readers for ourselves, and/or for others.

That moment is when a card, or a group of cards, appears to make absolutely no sense in the context of the question you asked, or the spread position in which the card(s) appear.

In that moment, it is easy just to give up.

Rather than walking away in exasperation, there are many better things to do. Social media tarot study groups and your tarot meetup friends can be very helpful in offering their opinions when you ask for help with interpretations. You might find your answer there!

However, some readings are too private and personal to share with dozens of your closest friends. Sometimes group members are so dogmatic in their own interpretation style that they don’t have the skill to help you think outside the box. Other than asking for that group support, what can you do in the moment when the cards don’t make immediate sense?

The first step is not to panic. Sometimes the cards read easily, sometimes we have to dig in. That process of digging in, though frustrating, can actually offer us the most profound tarot experiences if we are willing to be patient and open-minded.

If you are ready to dig into a seemingly nonsensical tarot reading, here are three steps you can try. With patience and persistence, the messages you receive will almost certainly be worth your effort. As with many things in life, the more effort you put into interpreting your tarot cards, the more rewarding your experience can be.

Research Card Meanings

Each tarot card can mean a variety of things. Whatever you have learned about a card is only a fraction of its possibilities.

Use these experiences as a time to expand your knowledge of the card, rather than being frustrated that what you have already learned about the card doesn’t fit. A simple internet search will give you many new perspectives.

Consider What Questions the Card May Be Asking

Very often the cards point the way to better questions, rather than answering the questions asked.

Perhaps the card that comes up in answer to your question is offering more information about the problem without answering the question. Maybe the card is helping you to rephrase the question.

Perhaps the card’s purpose is to get you to question your original premise, or to look at things from a different perspective.

Look at the Picture

Sometimes tarot speaks to us in a completely visual way. Sometimes, rather than thinking about traditions and classic interpretations, we simply need to allow ourselves to see what we see in the picture, at that moment, while considering our question.

Sometimes these oddball cards might cause us to question whether or not we should be reading tarot, or what the efficacy of tarot really is.

It is usually better to trust that the cards have something true to say. What we learn from the process of digging for that truth can be astounding.