Since dodalisque pointed me here from my pips practice thread in the TdM section, I’m going to do this as a pips only reading from my Noblet:
Six of cups, two of swords, three of cups.
The uniformity of the six of cups really jumps out at me. Straight lines abound, each cup is nearly in its place and the foliage creates a boundary. The moment I pulled that card I got a flash of people on treadmills, cars on production lines, endless rows of identical suburban houses. This is society today and everyone is just trying to keep their own cup full. There’s no intermingling here.
The two of swords in the TdM style is one of my all time favorite tarot cards. I just love the look of the blooming flower contained within the curvature of the swords. There’s space but also boundary, growth and inhibition, and an overall sense of balance. Here the tone is a little sinister. The flower represents mystery, the mystery that some of us seek. It’s locked away, but it must be locked away, because if it were freely available it wouldn’t be a mystery.
Then there’s the three of cups. This card also carries mystery with it. The chalices remind me of the Eucharist, in and of itself a mystery, especially if one believes in transubstantiation. The foliage grows freely among the cups, perhaps a sign that the mystery is unfolding. However, the upper cup is encircled while the lower two sit outside of the foliage’s embrace. There’s an inequity here. Is the upper cup receiving the mystery, do the lower cups have to go through the upper to be granted access? Is this not what we see in La Pape, who offers benediction to his supplicants while keeping his secrets to himself? Or is this a demonstration of the Middle Way, the resolution of two opposing forces through the alchemical wedding? Is it two parents doting on a baby, marveling at the mystery of life and the way it propagates?
Finally, does a preponderance of gold cups not just scream luxury? If the flower is the mystery, it’s hidden in a private garden, another luxury. And yet do we not all possess such things inside of us? Even the poorest person can have a rich interior world, which is ultimately where the mystery lives. The tarot itself is an instrument of mystery, and it’s more popular today as a tool for self discovery and esoteric study than it has ever been.
So I do think mystery is a luxury. But I do not think it is a luxury beyond the means of most people. It may not be of interest to most people, but should that interest spark in a person, they will find their way to the mystery within.
