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ACE OF CUPS

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ace-of-cups

Ace of Cups is a card used in Latin suited playing cards (Italian, Spanish and tarot decks). It is the Ace from the suit of Cups. In Tarot, it is part of what card readers call the “Minor Arcana”, and as the first in the suit of Cups, signifies beginnings in the area of the social and emotional in life.  Tarot cards are used throughout much of Europe to play tarot card games.

Playing cards first entered Europe in the late 14th century, probably from Mamluk Egypt, with suits very similar to the tarot suits of Swords, Staves, Cups and Coins (also known as disks, and pentacles) and those still used in traditional Italian, Spanish and Portuguese decks.

The first known documented tarot cards were created between 1430 and 1450 in Milan, Ferrara and Bologna in northern Italy when additional trump cards with allegorical illustrations were added to the common four-suit pack. These new decks were originally called carte da trionfi, triumph cards, and the additional cards known simply as trionfi, which became “trumps” in English. The first literary evidence of the existence of carte da trionfi is a written statement in the court records in Ferrara, in 1442.  The oldest surviving tarot cards are from fifteen fragmented decks painted in the mid 15th century for the Visconti-Sforza family, the rulers of Milan.

The Ace of Cups shows a hand holding a cup or chalice that is overflowing with five streams of water. The hand that appears from the clouds represents our consciousness of spiritual energy and influence. Radiating from the hand are rays which symbolizes that you must always trust your inner feelings and your heart to lead the way. This is your intuition and inner power talking to you. The five streams represent the abundance and power of the spirit and the effect of spiritual energy upon our five senses. A dove holding a wafer or small disc in its mouth descends from above, signifying the incarnation and appearance of the spirit in the material world. Below the hand is a great sea covered with lotus blossoms, symbolizing the awakening of the human spirit.

The Ace of Cups Tarot card’s meaning is of joy and inner peace from friends and family. The five streams pouring out of the cup represent the five senses: sight, smell, hearing, taste and touch.  As a symbol of possibility in the area of deep feelings, intimacy, attunement, compassion and love, in divination, it shows that a seed of emotional awareness has been planted in your life although you may not yet recognize it. When the seed sprouts, it could take almost any form. It might be an attraction, strong feeling, intuitive knowing, or sympathetic reaction. On the outside, it could be an offer, gift, opportunity, encounter or synchronistic event.

This card also suggests inner spirituality. Cups are the suit of the heart, and the Ace stands for the direct knowing that comes from the heart. Trust what your feelings are telling you. Seek out ways to explore your consciousness and your connections with Spirit.  Allow the power of your emotions to guide you in a new direction. Embrace the love that is the Ace of Cups.

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SHARE WATER

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SHARE WATER

Stranger in a Strange Land is a 1961 satirical science fiction novel by American author Robert A. Heinlein. It tells the story of Valentine Michael Smith, a human who comes to Earth in early adulthood after being born on the planet Mars and raised by Martians. The novel explores his interaction with—and eventual transformation of—terrestrial culture. The title is an allusion to the phrase in Exodus 2:22. According to Heinlein, the novel’s working title was The Heretic. Several later editions of the book have promoted it as “The most famous Science Fiction Novel ever written”.  Heinlein got the idea for the novel when he and his wife had some brainstorming one evening in 1948, and she suggested a new version of Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book, where a human child is raised by Martians instead of wolves. He decided to go further with the idea, and worked on the story on and off for more than a decade before it was complete.  In 1962, this version received the Hugo Award for Best Novel.  The book was a success from the start. Eventually Stranger in a Strange Land became a cult classic.

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ALONE TOGETHER

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WE'RE ALL ALONE TOGETHER

Do you feel as though you are completely alone?  Do you ever feel as though there is not one other person who really cares who you are, or what you think?  It is possible to honestly and opening share your deepest thoughts, dreams or emotions with anyone?  Do we really understand our OWN thoughts, dreams and emotions? If not, how can we honestly say that we can understand those of another being?

On Earth it seems that communication using language symbols  with other beings actually prevents complete understanding!  Our social facades, sexual-biological programing and cultural customs may temporarily soften the reality that we are, and have always been alone. As much as we may desire admiration from others, or feel admiration for others, we are the only person who really knows and understands the depth and breath of our inner, immortal self — if this is even possible at all.

Sharing life, love, understanding, hope, dreams and illusions with other beings — and losing them — awakens the soul-crushing brutality that we are, in fact, alone.  There is no greater pain that any being can suffer than this awareness.  Yet, this seems to be the fact of existence as we know it on Earth for the vast majority of beings.

When we die and have no body we literally disappear from physical universe reality.  People may have memories of us, but these fade and die each each person fades and passes from “reality”.  Religious propaganda tells us that “you are loved”.  But, are you really loved by another person, and an unseen spirit?  Do you even “love” yourself? Your relationship with yourself — yourself alone — is a subjective experience that cannot be shared with anyone.  If we want to be “loved”, we must do it ourselves. Love is an experience that is self-created.  However, when we’re dead we can “rest” assured that everyone else is alone with us, or without us. The pain we all endure alone is the reality we share together. ~ Lawrence R. Spencer, 2015.