I’m beginning to do things a little differently, dividing up the weekly card into smaller segments to make the information more digestable.
You can read Monday’s exercise and introduction Here, and you can read all about my weekly schedule regarding the weekly card here.
I once had a philosophy instructor who said that we develop our understanding of ourselves in relation to other people. How we interact and love, are loved, reject love, or are rejected of love helps us create our image of Self. We are reflected in the relationships we create. This meditation is to help you consider how you view yourself in relation to others.
Ace of Cups Meditation: Preparation
Find a comfortable and quiet place where you can keep a pen and paper near you, and ready to write what you find. If you are not a writer, or aren’t in a position to be able to write, making a video recording or a voice recording is just as good. Just try to avoid typing your responses during this exercise. You can transfer your findings onto a computer later, but not during the exercise.
Be sure to put your devices on silent or on Airplane mode so as not to distract yourself. If you prefer meditative music while you do this, try to avoid streaming anything, as any advertisements might disrupt this process (unless you have paid accounts).
Pick the Ace of Cups from the deck you intend to work with, or all of the decks. This meditation is for your connection with the card, and your developing understanding.
The Meditation
Close your eyes, and allow yourself to breathe. As you inhale, feel the parts of your body expanding with the breath, and focus the pure white energy entering into the center of your chest, into your heart chakra.
Exhale, letting go any tension you’re holding. Relax your shoulders, your neck, your tongue, your toes, your fingers. Just relax.
As you breath in, drawing in the white light, the lush green of your heart chakra brightens. It gets brighter and brighter with each breath you take, and you feel open to the energy of the cups.
After a few moments of breathing like this, open your eyes, and let yourself look at the Ace of Cups. At this point, you are just looking, observing. Mentally take note of anything that jumps out at you, but don’t put any meaning on it. Not yet. Just simply gaze at it, breathing slowly, but comfortably.
Take time to jot what you notice, what you feel, what you think. Spend as much time doing this as you want, fill as many pages as you’d like.
Questions
After you have finished writing your observations, spend some time journaling or vocalising your responses on the following questions. Really think about your responses, explore the question from all it’s angles. With each answer your provide, take a moment to reflect on it, add to it if you need, and then ask yourself if you are giving the most honest response you can.
- What relationships do I have in my life
- Which relationships do I cherish most?
- Which relationships do I feel are weak?
- What can I do to strengthen them?
- How do I understand myself in these relationships?
- How do I understand how those I have relationships with view me?
- What does my inner voice have to say about these assumptions?
- Does my intuition speak to me?
- If it does, do I listen?
- What blocks me from hearing my intuition/giving credit to my intuition?
- How does my intuition/how I interact with my intuition reflect my relationships?
Significance
The suit of Cups relate to the intuition, and your intuition is developed or smothered based on how you view the world and how you understand yourself. If how you understand yourself is a reflection through your relationships with other people, then one corresponds to the other.
As with all the Aces, the Ace of cups is about new beginnings within the suit. They correspond to the Magician, who is the gathering energy of a seed readying itself to break through its shell and grow into the world. By examining your understanding of yourself, you will be gathering the energy to examine your relationships in the world, and thus create a stronger inner voice. When we can understand ourselves for ourselves, then we can understand how we react to those around us, to those who are close to us, and thus create more healthy relationships.
How did this meditation work for you? Did you discover more about yourself and those around your? Let me know in the comments!
The Decks Used
Faerie Tarot by Nathalie Hertz, published by U.S. Games Systems, Inc, 2008. Hertz is a French artist, and the creator of several other beautiful tarot decks. The Faerie Tarot was ‘inspired by the flora and fauna of the French countryside,’ and ‘invites you to see the world in a delightful new way…blending fantasy, whimsy, and nature.’
Impressionist Tarot by Arturo Picca (artist) and Corrine Kenner (author), published by Lo Scarabeo in 2015. This deck takes works of classic impressionist paintings and recreates them to fit the meanings of the tarot. It pulls from works of Edonard Manet, Claude Monet, Pierre Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas, Vincent van Gough, and Paul Gauguin. A truly beautiful deck, especially for those who have interest in the art world.
Prisma Visions Tarot by James R. Eads, 3rd ed., published in 2016. The deck itself is beautiful, though perhaps not for the beginning tarot reader. The suits all fit together to create a master picture displaying the energy and progression of the suits. The figures and images flow from one card to the next, showing movement within the stationary cards.
Rider-Waite by A. E. Waite. The deck used in these photos is currently out of print. I won’t say much about this deck, as it is fairly standard and probably one of the most produced decks. It serves as a standard for many tarot readers and artists, depicting classic images relating in part to the original playing cards that tarot developed from.
The Spiral Tarot by Kay Steventon. With turn-of-the-20th-century style art, this deck takes from the classic Rider-Waite deck and brings it up to the late 1800-early 1900’s, a time of industry and contemplation for the western world as it moved forward into a more technological era. I am a little biased toward this deck as it’s been my main deck for 15 years. The cards are thick with additional symbolism that can be tricky to pick out of the traditional Rider-Waite, and adds layers of Greek myth throughout the Major Arcana.
Thoth Tarot by Aleister Crowley (designer and author) and Lady Frieda Harris (artist), published by U. S. Games Systems, Inc., in 1978. This deck takes from most esoteric imagery, and requires the reader of the deck to have deep, initiate knowledge of the symbolism used. There is nothing within the cards that is without meaning. However, on a more surface level, the deck draws from Egyptian symbolism and from the style of the Marseille Tarot (mostly seen within the Minor Arcana). For those looking for deeper understandings of the universe, I recommend this deck. I would caution that this deck is highly advanced, and might be avoided for the budding reader.
Vampire Tarot – by Nathalie Hertz, published by U.S. Games Systems, Inc. in 2000. As mentioned above in reference to the Faerie Tarot, Hertze is a French artist who gained her notability through the publication of her tarot decks. The Vampire Tarot was a bestselling deck upon its release, and plays on more gothic symbolism, providing more jarring interpretations to allow for the accepting of negative forces within the world to compliment the positive forces. The deck brings together myths and legends in the form of vampires, which ‘gives tarot readers a macabre passport’ into the world of divination.
