Card Meaning: Two Of Cups
General
The relationships are the main motif of this card. That is
immediately clear by its imagery. This card is connected to the theme explained
in the card The Lovers but not at the same level. While
The Lovers shows more of
a cosmic duality of principles and possibility for their reunion, this is more
down-to-earth relationship of two incomplete living beings. On the other level
this is a relationship of different parts of ourselves. Do we live in peace with
ourselves, are we able to embrace every part of ourselves? If not, this card can
indicate the first step of accepting some unwanted part of our personality.
First we must become whole before we can create relationships with other people.
So, this card speaks about both external and internal relationships. We
could say that this card is about bonding of people, ideas and concepts,
different facets of ourselves and generally speaking about parnership of any
kind. The cadeceus with wings floating in the air speaks about power of unity,
the lion's head is reminiscence of the card
Strength and its accent on love as
the true strength.
Reading
Positive: healing of a damaged partnership, harmony, love, resolving differences, understanding, accepting oneself.
Negative: quarrels, opposition, divorce, end of the relationship, infidelity,
betrayal, differences in opinion, confusion.
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 a few old examples of this
card. Some curious emblematical meanings are attached to it, but they do not
concern us in this place. Divinatory Meanings: Love, passion, friendship,
affinity, union, concord, sympathy, the interrelation of the sexes, and--as a
suggestion apart from all offices of divination--that desire which is not in
Nature, but by which Nature is sanctified.
— The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, by A.E. Waite