Ace of Cups
When the Ace of Cups comes up in a reading, I get shivers. Good shivers! The Ace of Cups is a heart overflowing with love. It is the Holy Grail of Arthurian legend. It is a babe in arms.
Aces are beginnings by nature of being the first in a series of Ace to Ten. Cups represent the element of water and the human realm of emotions. The combination of “beginning” and “emotion” can signify a lot of things, a new relationship, a family event, a blossoming friendship, or welcoming a child into the world.
There is an emphasis on receptivity and acceptance in this card. Water flows and water takes the shape of its container. To be human is to be a vessel for love. In one of my most favourite tarot books of all time Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom, author Rachel Pollack says, “Just as fire makes the world, so love gives it value.”
We must allow ourselves to receive love and allow for it to flow in and out of us. We cannot grab ahold of it, literally! We can hold it in our hand for a moment, but we cannot grasp it or contain it forever. We can see the power of the ocean to create and destroy. The gentle world of a tide pool teeming with life versus the crashing & crushing power of a tsunami. So we must respect the power of our own emotions from joy and tenderness to rage and betrayal. The Ace of Cups is pure joy and we must savour these moments in a life that is so fleeting.
Some folks might be drawn naturally to the Ace of Cups pendant because of its teardrop-shape or the crescent moon in the design. You may want to wear the Ace of Cups as a reminder to stay connected to your emotions or to balance out an anxious mind. You may feel connected to the Ace of Cups as one of the water signs, Cancer, Scorpio, and Pisces.
The sigil on the reverse of the pendant features a double crescent moon glyph to represent connection of two people through relationship. The tear drop is for the body’s outward physical manifestation of water, our tears - of sorrow and joy. An equal armed cross is for balance and grounding. The inverted triangle is the elemental glyph for water. Finally, the arrow on the right side of the cross refers to Scorpio, the fixed Water sign of the zodiac that is the scorpion but also is sometimes represented by the eagle or the phoenix rising from the fire.
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