Two of Cups

Cups: Interacting. Emotions and relationships of all kinds. Dealing with people. Think of two people toasting each other with wine glasses.

Two: It takes two. A dialogue. Weighing and comparing different possibilities.

A youth and maiden are pledging one another, and above their cups rises the caduceus of Hermes, between the great wings of which there appears a lion’s head. It is a variant of a sign which is found in some old examples of this card. Some curious meanings are attached to it, but they do not concern us in this place.

 

Three of Cups

Cups: Interacting. Emotions and relationships of all kinds. Dealing with people. Think of two people toasting each other with wine glasses.

Three: Having a plan. Formulating a strategy to accomplish a goal.

Maidens in a garden ground with cups uplifted, as if pledging one another. Divinatory Meanings: The conclusion of any matter in plenty, perfection and merriment; happy issue, victory, fulfillment, solace, healing. Reversed: Expedition, dispatch, achievement, end.

Time to celebrate your accomplishments, reap the happiness you’ve achieved. Happiness in family relationships, friendships, work. A sense of joy envelops all you do. The cup of life tastes sweet. Reversed: Anything enjoyed to excess can lose its value or worth. There’s a price to pay for overindulgence. Happiness turns to sadness, joy to sorrow, pleasure to pain. Emphasis on the sensual instead of the spiritual.

Three maidens in flowing robes raise high their cups in a place of flowering fruits and foliage. They are pledging friendship. Divinatory Meaning: Conclusion of a matter in plenty, perfection and gayety. Happy issue, victory, liberality, abundance. A healing to come. Reversed: Excess of physical enjoyment and pleasure in the senses.

Exuberance and joy, love abounds.

 

The Pope

Spiritual wisdom and authority. Orthodoxy. Petitioning another for help, or someone is petitioning you. A person who deserves respect and, at the same time, wariness.

Marriage alliance, captivity, servitude; by another account, mercy and goodness; inspiration; the man to whom the Querent has recourse. Reversed: Society, good understanding, concord, over-kindness, weakness.

The Heirophant is the link between God and man — the high priest on earth. His are the ways of tradition. He is our spiritual guide who transcends the material world.

 

The master of the sacred mysteries wears the triple crown of a pope, signifying the creative, formative, and material worlds. He holds a sceptre terminating in a triple cross. At his feet are crossed keys, a gold one for solar energy and a silver one for the unseen forces of the moon. The two tonsured priests kneeling before him again indicate duality, for one garment is decorated with the white lilies of spiritual thought and the other with the red roses of desire. He may represent the Pope, but more likely the idea of a pontiff who is master to the masses. He is the ruling power of external religion, whereas the High Priestess teaches only in secret to initiates. Divinatory Meaning: Preference for the outer forms of religion. The need to conform, to be socially approved. Reversed: Unconventionality, unorthodoxy, openness to new ideas in any field. Danger of becoming superstitious. Can be the card of the inventor as well as the crackpot.

This card speaks of a spiritual rather than a worldly power and authority. The priest offers wisdom and rational knowledge, creative intelligence and inspiring perceptions. You are gaining insight and a stable understanding of your life and surroundings. This knowledge is not necessarily a religious one, but rather a profound and sensible understanding. The High Priest in this card may symbolize an influential friend, adviser or teacher. Reversed: Beware of lies and misleading information.