25: Scorpio 2 (6 of Cups)

[Rose Lalonde]

6 of Cups
The second decan of Scorpio, a decan ruled by the Sun

 

Post at TabulaMundi.com - DECAN WALK: SCORPIO 2, SIX OF CUPS – Part I – Tabula Mundi Tarot

 

Excerpt: "Death, the card for Scorpio, and The Sun, card for (obviously) the Sun, ruler of the decan. Together they provide pleasant, sensual, and fertile Sun-warmed waters.

 

The decan usually contains the cross-quarter holiday Samhain, and All Saints or Dia de los Muertos, around November 1st, when the doorways to the underworld open and the veils are thin. Offerings are made to nature spirits and faery beings, as well as the souls of the dead, seeking the grateful blessings of kin beyond."

 

 

Tabula Mundi Tarot

 

Related cards:

Death for Scorpio
The Sun for the sun
Prince of Cups (for the last decan of Libra and the first two decans of Scorpio)

[Rose Lalonde]

Anyone know why Waite and/or PCS went with nostalgia for this card? I'm not complaining, just curious. The Golden Dawn Society name was The Lord of Pleasure, and the Thoth stuck close to that with Pleasure. -- There is a pleasure in recalling more carefree or innocent times, but nostalgic joy is a narrow definition of pleasure, so I wasn't sure. 

 

Anyway for the combo of Scorpio and the Sun, Crowley says, "The whole image is that of the influence of the Sun on Water." He adds, "Pleasure, in the title of this card, must be understood in its highest sense: it implies well-being, harmony of natural forces without effort or strain, ease, satisfaction."

 

We get double Sun here, since the sun also corresponds to all the sixes, along with a sense of balance and enlightenment.

[Nemia]

There may be a connection to the child on the Sun card - if you have ever watched children enjoying themselves, you know that we adults have lost the ability to give ourselves so completely to the moment. There is an element of naive optimism in children that is comforting to see. 

 

I also think that Colman-Smith wanted to include all kinds of emotional states and feelings in the cards, and looking back on old memories has to be there. Where to put it astrologically? Sun in Scorpio seems a surprising choice because if there's a sign that's self-aware, sometimes even tortured by self-awareness, it's Scorpio. The major arcanum of this sign is Death. Childhood is the only time that we have the chance to live unaware of Death (of course, there are children who are confronted with Death). 

 

And as you said, the Six of Cups is associated with Tif'eret, the radiant, optimistic sephirah of the Sun. So Waite and Colman-Smith took the daring step to show the innocence of Death in the middle of Death. 

 

From the Pictorial Key to the Tarot: 

 

A card of the past and of memories, looking back, as - for example - on childhood; happiness, enjoyment, but coming rather from the past: things that have vanished. 

 

This reminds me of a saying: Memory is the only paradise from which we can't be expelled. This makes nostalgia such a complex feeling. We look back at a time when we thought our paradise was permanent, but it was not. We long not only for that paradise but also for the feeling that it would last. 

 

And in that sense, it suits Scorpio and Death very well to have at its apex a card that keeps memory alive, celebrating the belief in permanence in a world where everything vanishes. 

 

For me personally, this card embodies the Inner Child. Finding harmony within myself is only possible when I'm in harmony with the little girl I once was. 

 

This is what I see on my tarot calendar in front of my eyes right now:

 

 

Death on the one side, Pleasure/Nostalgia on the other. 

 

 

And when I zoom in on the Tiny RWS magnets, I see Death riding towards the children. 

 

 

But the children are blissfully unaware of what is coming. Love is as strong as Death, says the Song of Salomo. We all have to yield to Death, but our memories keep love alive. 

 

 

[Ferrea]

In their book Secrets of the Waite-Smith Tarot, Katz and Goodwin often underline the fact that Pamela drew much of her inspiration from her experience in the theatre. It seems she used examples that helped her weave in a certain complexity.
A couple of years back, there was a neon light installation on the outer walls of the Altes Museum in Berlin by Maurizio Nannucci that read: All Art Has Been Contemporary. The book makes a strong case for recognising this very contemporary aspect of the CSW Tarot.

Here is a short passage from the chapter on the 6 of Cups:
 

Quote

 

„There is significant evidence that the mismatched figures on the 6 of Cup, the flowers, the glove, guardsman, and other elements of this scene are drawn from Nance Oldfield, a play that starred Ellen Terry and was quite popular as a “blend of humor and gooey pathos” (according to one review). In fact, the play was so popular that it allowed Terry to purchase Tower Cottage. Nance Oldfield is based on the real-life actress Anne Oldfield and features a young poet who falls for an actress. As she is older than he, she resists his advances in a series of comical exchanges, playing down herself.

The play fits the theme perfect as given in Book T: “contention and strife arising from unwarranted self-assertion and vanity.” The young poet thinks the woman is younger—and she rebuffs his unwarranted self-assertion.“

 

 

Edited 11 hours ago by Ferrea

[JoyousGirl]

I'm just offering an idea, not from any book.

 

It makes me think of little girls from poor families (or orphans) of history who sold flowers to survive. (I'm also thinking of little matchstick girl.)

 

They were known as "flower girls". Now, where it gets interesting is that "flower girls" became a label associated with prostitution.

 

When you think about it, if a child is poor or orphaned, and selling flowers to survive, it's unlikely she will grow up wealthy. Flowers can be picked, they don't cost anything, and they're a pleasure to see and smell (sometimes they're medicinal). 

 

People can be more generous to children. As adults, not so much. 

 

So, the innocence of childhood, the leeway given is lost upon getting to a certain age. So how does a female of a class system she cannot escape - that is built into society - fending for herself meet her needs now that society is not so generous because she is an adult (a traumatised one at that)?

 

So nostalgia and pleasure might be better understood here. Nostalgia for when people were kinder, prior to all the diseases she may have incurred as a result of not having any other livelihood to survive on, she now has children to feed with the same coin she survived on, (and increasingly less coins earned once her disease has set in and takes away her appeal). The idea of matchgirl comes to me for this. The reverie is the only place of pleasure.

 

I'm going on another tangent here and that is - these days (but maybe then too, if the boy is doing what I'm suggesting) - others will go and take all the flowers before anyone else can get to them. Then the flower girl has to pay a fee to someone who went out and picked the flowers for nothing - further decreasing her ability to provide for her needs. So she could also be nostalgic about the days she could take pleasure in picking flowers (because there were always some about and it would give pleasure to find them). Ultimately, with this intermediary taking the flowers and not being able to find any out in the fields, the pleasure might be gone from the fight for survival altogether. Then, what's the point?

 

 

Edited 13 minutes ago by JoyousGirl