Online Tarot Course: Class 3 - The Suit of Cups

Welcome to part three of my free beginner's tarot course, where you are learning tarot without having to memorize silly keywords and arbitrary information from a book. All the information is here for you. By the end of this course, you will be reading right and left for you, for others. It's going to be so fun. My name is Jomon Cleone. I am a modern mystic, total misfit, and your tarot tour guide. I run the Tarot Mysticism Academy, an online school that teaches advanced tarot, mysticism, healing, personal development, and even professional practice, among a million and one other things. So get cozy, get your cards out, and get your journal out, and we will resume where we left off. By the way, I have a totally new journal that I just made for you for this beginner learn tarot series, and this journal is going to have everything you need to do all of the reflection and journaling and drawing all the connections of what I am teaching in this course. So you can download this for free with the link in the description, or you can go to TarotMysticismAcademy.com and find it there. But this journal is what we will be working with, and it will become a lifelong companion to your work as a tarot reader. Seriously, the journal is so important. I started my journal decades ago probably, and it's like multiple books at this point. So let's review what we've done so far. In class one, we looked at the elements, fire, water, air, earth, elements of astral birth, remix, redome, right? And we have wands, cups, swords, and pentacles. In these four elements, there are two layers to these elements. There's the mystical, and then there's the more terrestrial. We'll start with the mystical, and then we'll go terrestrial. In the mystical, fire and wands generally represents the subject of experience that I center, the ability for me to say I want, I am doing, and ultimately I am, right? The subject of the concern. And then the water and the suit of cups represents the object that that subject is going towards, whether that's the beloved, a goal, a delicious piece of chocolate, this amazing tarot journal that I just made for you, I don't know, anything. Whatever draws your attention, the object of your attention is water and the suit of cups. And then the relationship between the two, subject and object, creates the identity, the ego, that sense of self, which is the suit of swords and the element of air. That's all about identities, abstractions, values, society, the mind, all that. And then that identity sort of helps literally name reality into reality. It gives reality all of its names, forms, and functions, which render the material world, which is earth. The material world represented by the suit of pentacles and the element of earth. So in a more kind of terrestrial, colloquial, day-to-day context, these elements show us four things, fire being generally connected to career, drive, passion, our creativity, what we want in life, our purpose. Water and the suit of cups is more connected to relationships, romantic relationships, platonic relationships, family, how we receive each other, how we connect, how we relate. And then air and the element of air in the suit of swords is connected to the identities that are born through those relationships. And because of that, the element of swords oftentimes represents our mind, our mental health, our thoughts, our identifications. And more specifically, society as a whole, groups of people, technology, all that good stuff. And then the suit of pentacles and the element of earth represents physical things, literally the body, wellness, health, but also money, wealth, all that good stuff. And then I taught you the ultimate technique for reading over half the tarot deck without having to memorize one key word, no meanings at all, no tarot history. And all this stuff, by the way, I teach in detail. I have a two-year curriculum where I dive into this. But this technique will save you countless hours of research and study and memorization. I'm just going to review it for you right here. How to read the numbered minor arcana card. So that's H through 10 of the four elements. One, notice the suit symbol and recall the meaning of its associated element that we just went over. Two, notice the scene. How do the people, places, or things in the card interact with the suit symbol? Okay, so how does the suit symbol interact with the scene of the card? And number three, this is the fun part. This symbolizes how they interact with the element and lead to the meaning of the card. So in the suit of wands, we went through each card and we noticed how the wands, the literal wands in the card interacted with the people, places, or things, and that showed the meaning of the card. That showed how the people, places, and things were interacting with the element of fire, which is passion, work, creativity, drive, life purpose, all those things. Today, we're going to do that with the suit of cups. And now that you have this journal, you can so easily write down your reflections and discoveries of the meanings of the cards through this technique. The coolest thing about this is it's all you. It's coming from your own speculation and study and curiosity. It's not some old occultist telling you what the cards mean from some obscure manual that who knows where it even came from, right? So let's resume with the suit of cups. Remember that the suit of cups represents the element of water and water represents mystically the object of awareness, the beloved, the focus, the form of the universe starting to take shape. Terrestrially and more mundanely, it represents emotions and relationships and family and people and relatability and our intuition. It represents our ability to empathize and feel and connect with other people in a shared experience because the shared experience is the object of our awareness. We may be able to, for example, feel grief with someone or share happiness with someone or share sexuality with someone. All of these feelings and experiences are objects of our awareness. Not only that, but the other person to which we are empathizing is in a way an object of our awareness as a focus point. So all of the cards in the suit of cups are going to show us ways that we relate to others, ways that our consciousness focuses in on a person or experience. So let's jump in. Ace of cups, we have the element of water, relationship to the scene. So what I want you to write down is what is the relationship between the cup in this image to the scene. So we know we have our hand of God consciousness, the ultimate source of being, the ultimate truth, nothing but the truth, so help me God, whatever you want to call it. We have that hand coming out and offering this cup, which is overflowing. But it's interesting because the cup is not full, yet it is overflowing. And then we have the dove coming down with the wafer. So we have some Christian connections. We know Arthur Edward Waite, who directed Pamela Coleman Smith in the creation of this deck, was a Christian mystic. And remember how I said that the element of water is all about the object? Well, the Holy Spirit is coming down with the wafer, the body of Christ, which is like the material object of spirit. That leads into a whole other wormhole and a whole other course. But essentially what we're seeing in this ace of cups is cup, the emotion, the relatability, the capacity to build relationships as being the home for both this communion, this Holy Ghost to descend into it. This relationship of above and below is going to fractalize and manifest as all the relationships throughout the rest of the suit. It's really, really cool. If you understand the aces here, you understand a whole other mystical depth to the tarot. And so what does this have to do with inner reading? It's literally the gift, the hand gifting, the capacity of emotion, the capacity of relatability, the capacity of relationship. So usually this is an opportunity for relationship, relatability, emotional vulnerability, and growth and maturity. So in the two of cups, we have two people holding their cups. They're facing each other. They're looking into each other's eyes and out springs an alchemical line in the Caduceus of Hermes. So what does this have to do with anything? They're both holding their cups. So what are they holding? Their emotions, their compassion, their relatability, their capacity to form relationships. And both cups are on the same level. They're right at the same height. So they're kind of at this level ground with each other. They're looking into each other's eyes. This is a card of love. This is a card of holding your heart, holding your emotion, holding that vulnerability right at the same level of a person across from you, having this meeting point, having this connection and having fun with that. It's classically, you know, traditionally a card of falling in love or more specifically I would say infatuation. The alchemical line that's coming out of the two cups between them can represent like in literally their neurons firing in infatuation for each other. So write down all of that. Write down the relationship between the suit symbol and the scene and write down your meanings here. So the three of cups, we see a little bit of a different situation. This is more of a toast. Two of cups isn't really a toast. Three of cups is like more of a toast, a celebration. We have what appears to be three women and they're dancing and their three cups are crossing and then there looks to be a harvest on the floor. So what are they doing? They are taking their emotions, they are taking their cups, their ability to relate and connect and toasting and bringing their enjoyment of each other and that connection really, really high up and dancing because of it. So in a way, they're literally celebrating their ability to connect. They're celebrating their emotions, their relatability, their connections, their, yeah, their ability to see each other. This is a card of celebration and harvest and partying and fun and yeah, lots of fun stuff. It's important also to note that the cups are generally a suit of pleasure and especially pleasure that is received, okay, whereas the suit of wands is a little bit more the pleasure of pouring out, of offering, of giving. Okay, so the four of cups. This card is probably one of the most ambiguous cards of the whole Tower deck. Everyone's got a different interpretation of it. Watch how easy it is when you use this technique, okay? So step one, notice the suit symbol, recall the meaning. It's cups, so we know it's emotions, relationships, connections, relatability, feelings. Step two, notice the interaction with the scene. So we have three cups on the ground that this fellow may be looking at and he's crossed his arms and he's sitting down and there's a tree behind him and then there's this other cup that's coming out of a cloud to his side that we have to decide, does he know that that cup's there or is he not noticing that cup? All right, step three is to connect the meaning of the suit symbol with the scene and derive the meaning. So if these three cups represent emotions or feelings, then that means that he is focusing on these three emotions down here, these three feelings or these three relationships even maybe. But maybe he's not noticing the feeling or the emotion that's coming out of this cloud and it's coming out of a cloud, so it probably has some magical properties that if he would notice would, I don't know, maybe make his day a little bit more interesting, maybe he'd uncross his arms and receive something pretty cool. So we might interpret this as this guy resisting the reception of this cup, this new emotion, this new connection, and so he kind of has his walls up a little bit. He's kind of holding to where he is instead of where he could go. Another interpretation is maybe he is thinking about this cup, maybe this cup coming out of the cloud is his thought, and he's thinking about an emotion or a relationship or a connection that he wants to have, and yet all he has physically in his reality are these three cups. So maybe he's unhappy with these cups. The esoteric title of this card is called Lord of Blended Pleasure. It's a very kind of, it's actually a very sophisticated card and a feeling. It's the ability, it's that moment where you feel good on the surface, but something's off, and you know something needs to change. It's a really good card. When it shows up in a reading, really dig into it. There's a lot of nuance there. All right, the five of cups, everyone's favorite, right? So let's use our technique. Notice the suit symbol, recall the element, notice the interaction, derive the meaning. Okay, what is the suit symbol cups? We know relationships, emotions, connectivity, relatability. Now these cups, we're going to notice the interaction, we have two of them behind the black robed figure, and then three of them spilling over. What's spilling over? Something red, something kind of green. Could be blood, could be wine, could be a combination of these things. What do we notice here? Classic interpretation is he's looking at the three cups spilt, but he's not noticing the two cups standing upright, which lead to the bridge, which lead to maybe his home or her home, or connections to what still is. Classic card of loss, right? So when we use this technique, we can literally, we see this more than ever. We can see the emotions, cups are the emotions, that he's looking at, which are spilt, which overflowed, which are not contained, right? This could be mourning, this could be expression of something very difficult, and some affect. And then there are these cups that are standing up that are not spilt. So there are still emotions, feelings, and or relationships that are secure, and that are safe, and that are present to this person that they can turn around and enjoy and continue and grow. Six of cups. It's a weird card because it's changed over the history of tarot from different authors. And classically, most people think of it as like childhood memories and nostalgia, and that doesn't quite fit some of the other history of tarot, but it totally can work, and that's a valid interpretation, but let's use our technique. So the cups, which represent emotions, relationships, feelings, and also remember pleasure, the object of desire, we see four of them in the foreground. We see one of them behind this taller figure, and then we see the taller figure giving one of the cups to this shorter figure. Now a lot of people interpret them as children, and that's totally cool, they could be children. I also could see them as like older, you know, people, or it could be a number of things. But this is a giving of a cup, and the cup has a lily in it, I believe, I think that's a lily. A lily can be a symbol of old age, innocence, peace, and a number of other things. So it's kind of like this person's giving this shorter person a cup, they're giving this woman their emotion, they're feeling their relationship, their vulnerability, and within that cup, within all those things, emotion, relationship, vulnerability, there's peace, there's the lily, there's a flower, there's something beautiful. So it's the beauty of offering and giving and being the invitation to somebody else. I believe because there's this older person walking away with their back turned, people interpret this as the past, as nostalgia. Esoterically it's called the Lord of Pleasure, and being a six, it's all about the harmony of the element, which in this case is relationships, it's the harmony of relationships. I don't think this is a card of passion, like in the Two of Cups, where you see the alchemical lion emerging from the two cups, from those two capacities to relate. In this, there's just a lily, it's much more innocent, it's much more simple. So when this card shows up in a reading, it could be a gift, it could be a kind gesture, it could be something innocent, it could be connecting to your inner child, which by doing that for you, if you are vulnerable enough, you can help somebody else connect to their inner child by seeing their inner child, and if you do that, they won't leave you alone, because if you connect with someone on that level, it's like giving them that affirmation, that comfort, it's the best thing. So the Seven of Cups, we know that cups are emotions, relatability, relationships, objects of desire, pleasure, all that good stuff. Notice the interaction, we have a silhouetted figure gazing upon these seven cups in this smoke, in their imagination, in their dream, in their desire. What is the meaning? They are looking at, all these cups have something different in them. Notice we have a woman's face, we have a figure with a cloth, we have a snake, we have a dragon, we have riches. So this is a card of gazing upon your desires, many, many objects of your desires, which are also diverse and different. And so it's a card of being in your fantasy, in your many fantasies, in your many desires. It could be a card of a difficult decision, a card of indulging in the fantasy, sometimes it's a card of addiction or overindulgence, it's called the Lord of Illusory Success. All these things this person wants, but being that they're in the cloud and this person's in a silhouette, it's probably not materialized. So many objects of desire. Now the antidote to that seven of cups is actually the eight of cups, which is kind of the opposite. So where in the seven of cups we have a silhouetted person gazing upon all the objects of their desire, in the seven of cups we have a non-silhouetted person in the moonlight walking away from empty cups instead of gazing upon full cups of all different things. So notice the relationship between the suit symbol and the scene. This is somebody who's walking away from, and not in two directions, walking backwards away from the cups in the foreground, but also walking upwards where the cups are on the ground. So walking upwards could, you know, signify some sort of spiritual work or growth as opposed to the cups that are below. So classically we notice that there's this one cup that is missing in the design, and where that cup is missing we see the person's feet. So we can say that something is missing here, and so the person goes in a different direction. The cups represent emotions, relationships, or objects of desire, which this person is deserting, which this person is abandoning maybe to get this other cup. So in a reading this is a card that says it's time to change your targets, it's time to change your priorities, and actually go and get what's going to make you feel whole, because obviously there's a cup missing right here. There is a desire, emotion, or relationship cups that is missing in the design, and so you must walk away from it. Nine of cups. Notice the suit symbol, notice the relationship to the scene, get the meaning. Emotions, objects of desire, relatability, pleasure, and what's the scene? We have a figure who is sitting on a bench whose arms are crossed, and he looks happy, right? This is actually called the Lord of Happiness, he has a happy expression. Behind him is this, what is this, a table? This curtain with cups on top of it. So he's got a lot of cups, he's got nine cups, and they are clearly placed there behind him suggesting that he owns them, or that he has put them there, or he has some level of control, or he's reached this collection of cups. This is somebody who's reached many of their desires, many of their, has achieved, you know, emotional well-being, has achieved the relationships that they want, and they're all on top of the curtain. But of course, the big question is, what's under the curtain? Why is the curtain so tall? So there may be secrets here as well. And lastly, we have the Ten of Cups. So the cups, which represent emotions, relatability, relationships, feelings, desires, all of that, are now in the sky, in a rainbow. And below that rainbow, we have a family. So this is very interesting, because the people aren't directly interacting with the cards, and it's a little bit abstract. Obviously, it would be quite rare to go outside and find ten cups floating in a rainbow. Not impossible, you know, maybe another God's promise, whatever, but probably rare. So we kind of have to think a little bit more abstractly. This rainbow, potentially being a promise of God, or good weather, or just a happy ever And the cups, together, are showing that the emotions, the relationships, the relatability, the family, right, is now in their happy ever after. It's not just in the feelings and experiences of the individual people, it's expanded across a whole scene. And all the tens of the tarot show an overflow of the elements. So the overflow of the suit of cups is literally procreation, or family building, or love that pours over an individual into the lives of others to continue to grow. And that's exactly what we see down here. In the two of cups, the two lovers were facing each other, focused on each other, but now the lovers are facing outwards with children. It's a whole scene, it's a whole vibe, it's a whole happy ending. We love it. By the way, if you're looking to go really deep with tarot, you're going to want to study its connections with mysticism in general. Especially with Kabbalah, with Hermeticism, Neoplatonism, Nonduality, Alchemy, Magic, and a bunch of other things. All of which I teach at the Tarot Mysticism Academy. I have a two-year curriculum that covers multiple courses on all these different topics and disciplines, and not just the information, but how you can actually use it. You see, I thought I knew it all years ago, and then I met my teacher, and she actually taught me how to use this stuff. So that's the big thing that I teach with Tarot Mysticism Academy, I mentor people in using these mystical disciplines to actually create more peace, more ease, more fun, more love in their life, more freedom. Yeah, you know, suffering sucks, who doesn't want enlightenment? But seriously, my goal is enlightenment, that's what I've committed my life to, and there's so many amazing teachers, thousands of years of varying traditions that teach how we can live a more peaceful and fun and full life. So if you want to go that deep with tarot, I'd recommend checking out TarotMysticismAcademy.com, looking at the courses, and checking in with your intuition. So make sure to watch class four of the free Learn Tarot Series Beginner Course, that is where we will cover the suit of swords. In my opinion, the suit of swords is the most interesting and most important suit of the deck because it is the very microcosm through which you are experiencing this video.