For You to See Life - 4u2c.life

The card of the King of Cups portrays a pale, black-haired and black-bearded man with large, sympathetic dark eyes, dressed in a deep blue robe and wearing a golden crown. He is seated on a golden throne whose arms are engraved with golden crabs. In one hand he holds a golden cup; in the other, a lyre. At his feet, steps descend to the water of a harbour, out of which a crab can be seen emerging. Behind him, beyond the promontory of land on which his throne stands, a turbulent sea can be glimpsed.

Minor Arcana ~ The King of Cups

Here, in the card of the King of Cups, we meet the active, dynamic dimension of water, which overtly seeks to form relationships and even to guide and help others. This is embodied in the mythic figure of Orpheus, the singer, who was both priest and healer, yet whose own story is sad and lonely although he brought comfort to his fellows. Orpheus was the son of the Thracian King Oeagrus and the Muse Calliope, and he was the most famous poet and musician who ever lived. Apollo presented him with a lyre and the Muses taught him its use, so that he not only enchanted the wild beasts, but made even the trees and rocks move from their places to follow the sound of his music. He joined the Argonauts on their quest for the Golden Fleece, and his music helped them to overcome many difficulties. On his return, he married Eurydice, and settled in Thrace.

But his life was not destined to be happy. One day a man tried to assault Eurydice in the valley of the River Peneius, and she trod on a serpent as she fled and died of its bite. But Orpheus boldly descended into the underworld, hoping to fetch her back. He not only charmed the ferryman Charon, the three-headed dog Cerbems and the three Judges of the Dead with his plaintive music, but temporarily suspended the tortures of the damned, and so far soothed the dark heart of Hades that he won leave to restore Eurydice to the upper world. But Hades made one condition: that Orpheus might not look behind him until she was safely back in the light of the sun. Eurydice followed Orpheus up through the dark passages, guided by the sound of his lyre. But at the last moment he lost his trust, and looked back to see whether she was still there; and so he lost her forever.

After this Orpheus took up the role of a priest, teaching the mysteries and preaching the evil of sacrificial murder to the men of Thrace. But the god Dionysos grew jealous of him because his fame spread and men began to worship him as though he were divine. The god set his mad maenads upon Orpheus, and they tore him to pieces in their frenzy. The Muses tearfully collected his limbs and buried them at the foot of Mount Olympus, where the nightingales now sing more sweetly than anywhere else in the world.

Orpheus, the King of Cups, is an image of the wounded healer, the figure who through compassion and empathy can heal others yet who cannot heal his own hurt in the realm of the heart. In many ways he is the ancient equivalent of many modem social workers and psychother- apists - the individual who longs to be in touch with the world of feeling, and tries constantly to help others to relate, yet who sometimes lacks trust in his or her own personal life and therefore cannot ultimately achieve the fulfilling relationship which is so desired.

The King of Cups places human relationship and human love above everything, and will go to great lengths to initiate and preserve this emotional contact. Yet he remains curiously uncomfortable, and must keep looking back to see whether what he has initiated is still behind him, still intact. Thus he often loses the very thing which he most desires. This figure is deeply paradoxical, as though the element of water - which is in many ways an image of the feminine world of feeling - sits uncomfortably with the masculine and dynamic image of the King. The two are awkward together, and create a strange ambivalence. The King of Cups is a moody and sensitive figure, and often gifted with great depth of feeling and a rare gift at communicating that feeling to affect and influence others. But this is the relationship of performer to audience. He himself never quite relinquishes control. It is for this reason that Dionysos’ maenads, the crowd of ecstatic women who follow in the god’s train, dismember him, for in a sense he must first be powerless and metaphorically tom to pieces before he can be something other than the wise counsellor to other people’s pain.

Orpheus himself has no real fulfilment in life, having forfeited his own chance of personal happiness through his mistrust of Hades’ word. This in itself tells us a good deal about the King of Cups, for although he may initiate relationship and talk constantly of it, he does not ultimately trust the world of the unconscious, which he cannot see. Thus he is enthroned near the water, but cannot submerge himself in it, for he fears the drowning which letting go to another might entail.

When the King of Cups appears in a spread, it is time for the individual to experience this ambivalent side of himself or herself-the gifted counsellor and healer who can empathize with and help others, yet who cannot quite trust life enough to take its course. It is characteristic that many of those in the helping professions choose such a vocation because they have been wounded through personal relationships, often those with the parents; and thus they form relationships where they remain ultimately in control and cannot be that deeply hurt again. Although this kind of dynamic may contribute a great deal to others, one cheats oneself. If the King of Cups enters the individual’s life in the form of a person who embodies these qualities, then this may be taken as an indication that it is time to meet this dimension of oneself.

I will explain in my readings what each card means, this is a general interpritation taken from the Mythic Tarot Deck

Information Source: Mythic Tarot Deck
[published in 1986 by Juliet Sharman-Burke and Liz Greene and Illustrated by Tricia Newell (not the New Mythic Tarot)]