Cards: 10 of Cups

I recently had family visiting, hence my writing absence. The visit was welcome and expected but nonetheless exhausting, fitting as I am going to be closing the suit of cups with this post.

The 10 of cups is unequivocally a card that denotes plenty, enough, or a lot. When I look at all those cups, it is so overwhelming that the 10th one topples over, spilling its contents. A perfect example of how these past few weeks have been for me, from the arrival of change that the visit brings is born satiety. A perfect shift from the 9 to the 10 of cups.

In traditional cartomancy, the 10 of cups is also a card of journeys. Understandable given its position as the culmination of the suit, denoting a transition into something else, something new. As with cartomancy, it really all depends where the card lands in medias res. Generally, as cups highlight water, the journey is over water, covering a long distance by boat. 

Closing this suit, I am reminded of communion, of sharing, of community. As cups are generally best when shared, no matter what their contents, that is, wine, coffee, juice, the heart, emotions, tears, love. This is an intimate suit that conveys kinship, harmony, and serving. As I think back on the recent visit of family, highlighted by everything else that goes on around me, both in the public and private sphere, I practice the letting go of stale waters. I embrace fellowship and let go of the excess. I acknowledge the welcome visit and the sharing, while letting go of the pettiness and the overwhelm. What use is it to me to retain it, wallowing in putrefaction? What use is it to anyone? Perhaps that is the intimated lesson in the toppled over cup (the 10th cup), the art of letting go, learning to let go so that other things can enter and begin anew.

Needless to say, as I sit in a coffee shop by myself, something I haven’t done in ages, I admit that although the visit was welcome it was also tense, draining, and a bit frustrating. Then I tip the 10th cup over, purposefully, letting the contents spill out and disperse. Instead of swimming in a pool of stale water, I just let it go.

I don’t want to wade in this post for too long, I am keeping it short and sweet. But perhaps, leaving you with one last question, what cups need to be toppled over in your life?