Tarot Tuesday: The Fairy Godfather, or The Nine of Cups

I leave you sated

Moon’s silver bounty—weightless—

Pearling heart’s satchel

So why might a pilgrim leave a bounty behind to travel a new path as we saw in last week’s Eight of Cups prompt? Let’s say all your life you have hungered for love. When the lover showed up at long last, were you ready? I believe the timing of the universe is benign. Sometimes we haven’t lived enough to have prepared ourselves to accept gifts when they come. I believe those gifts will simply come in another form when we are ready.

Or perhaps we are sated when the offer of loves comes in—filled by possibility—and it is enough to know we could be loved. And in response, still choose to linger another stretch of time on the path of self-love. Instead of yearning for love from a lover, being gifted the opportunity of turning love down.

So in this Eight of Cups Haiku I celebrate the free pearls of moonlight and the simple joy of moving down a path in nature, barefoot. What do you love the most that costs nothing, that brings you joy?

Hunting blue sea glass is one of my favorite pastimes. As is walking by the sea. In sunlight. By moonlight. For now, I side with the red pilgrim, eager to walk in nature for the sake of walking despite the full cups she could sit and enjoy. May they still be there when she circles back.

Tarot Tuesdays Prompt: The Nine of Cups

The Nine of Cups in the Rider Waite Smith deck shows us a happy patriarch, or friar, or person, arms folded, brimming, shining cups behind him in a row just waiting to be enjoyed.

Eden Grey (A Complete Guide to the Tarot) refers to the cups as the “nine of cups of plenty” and labels this the wishing card. Rachel Pollack (Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom) refers to compromises we make in life (as connected to Nines) and the way we can stand to revel in simple pleasures to balance the equation. Alejandro Jodorowsky and Marianne Costa suggest (The Way of Tarot: The Spiritual Teacher in the Cards) it can be useful “to sacrifice feelings that once nourished us but are now chaining us down, to mourn them appropriately, then leave for larger emotional dimensions.”

What do you wish for? Make a list of at least nine wishes. Or ninety! What physical pleasure or sense experience could you give to your body? What does your heart yearn for in the moment? When was the last time you laughed? Which friends or family members bring out your sense of humor?

Do you have a fairy godfather? Write about the male in your life you experience/d as a fairy godfather granting your secret wishes. Or consider the fairy godfathers of myth or literature…name them, claim them, and write them a new chapter.

Feel free to respond in comments here or to join the conversation at Tarot Tuesday’s Facebook page to share your word or image response.

Photos: by Robyn Beattie. Second photo is of a sculpture by Ron Rodgers, taken by Robyn Beattie. Image also appears in our poetry movie for Thumbelina.

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Next Tarot Writing Class begins April 11, 2016: Wheel of Archetypal Selves: The Many Faces of Change.