The Thoth Tarot-10 of Cups-Satiety and the Night Sun Tarot- 10 of Cups:
The 10's are as objectively far as you can go with the alchemical element of water/emotion. The 10- Sephirotic spheres of the Tree of Life are complete here; the as above and so below are connected. Here water receives the influence of the 10, which is also Malacha (Malkuth) the Virgin; However, there is a conflicting element in the 10 of Cups and this is shown by their tilting. They are unstable as they spill the Water from the Great Lotus into one another. What this tilting and spilling implied is that the work of water is complete and disturbance is due. This disturbance comes from the influence of Mars in Pisces. Mars is the violent and disruptive force which inevitably attacks every supposed perfection. Since Pisces is both peaceful and spiritualistic, Mars displays the greatest possible contrast with Pisces.
This Martian contrast, is shown by the connecting paths of the Tree of Life on the Thoth Card; the skeleton of it, are in the Red of Mars. Basically, what this card is implying is that in-order to keep water/emotion pure and living, once it's work is complete, it must keep moving; lakes, which are a form of satiated water must have a run off river to stay pure.Therefore, the Ten of Cups-Satiety implies saturation is complete and it is soon to flow past the point of saturation. Again if happiness is based on unchanging satiety, you'll not stay happy; However, if you know," surprise to be the greatest gift of all", [Jahaladine Rumi] then happiness is not influenced by change and you are happy being you in any moment of time. Repose is over, time to get moving again! To reiterate: The Thoth Ten of Cups, Satiety, although in the seemingly stable form of the Tree of Life, has a Martian- conflicting element that causes a tilting of the Cups, spilling water from the Great Lotus (One Spirit/Greater Self) that overhangs the whole system.
The Night Sun Tarot-10 OF CUPS-
Astrologically this card is also Mars in Pisces, as seen by the symbol for Mars in the upper left and the sign for Pisces, in the upper right. Here we have a oddity.
Normally you would think that Mars combined with a water sign would signify a dispersal of energy with maybe some frustration. But in this case, the fire of Mars causes a kind of steamy evaporation of the Watery sign of Pisces to expand into the world of Briah, (the unconscious Mental World) bringing great success in the Material World where dreams have enough "Steam" to materialize.
As in the Thoth Tarot, the Cups are overflowing, rather violently, illustrating saturation and the violent action of Mars. The connecting vine, is flowered with Lotus above and therefore done with its growth. From 10 there is only the motion of- from 1 to 0 and 0 back to 1.
The Thoth Tarot 10 of Cups, illustrates that happiness is "inspired from above" and in ordinary divination means that: matters definitely arranged and settled as wished, permanent and lasting success of one issue.
Crowley calls the 10 of Cups, The Lord of Perfected Success, as this is the influence of MALKUTH in the unconscious Mental/Creative World known as Briah, the second triangle on the Qabalistic Tree of Life.
Satiety, is word meaning, filled to the point of excess, though it is hard to argue that excessive happiness is a negative thing; However, it could be distracting and promotes no change. To reinstate, what is exceptional about this card, is that the general astrological meaning of Mars in Pisces doesn't apply. Pisces is a watery/emotional sign, therefore, Mars would signify a dispersal of energy to a point of frustration.
However, the Qabalistic meaning here is that fiery Mars causes the Waters of Pisces to rush furiously into Briah, bringing great success on the Material plane of Malkuth. The imagery of this card expresses the opinion that all happiness is inspired from above, i.e. comes from the Divine Self. One could say that Happiness, is a higher-inner state of energy consciousness, a harmony of cords, rather than discord.
As stated: There is a sign discord from Mars in Pisces. Mars is a noted gross, violent force, depicted in Myth as the God of War who attacks any noted imperfection. Pisces, is notably peaceful, spiritual, sensitive, psychic, and receptive. Mars is brutal, fiery and dominant.This combination means that the proper work of Water/emotion is done, and a substantial disturbance is due. In fact, Mars in Pisces, is considered by many astrologers to be the worst position of the 12 signs.
To be sure, when medieval Tarot art, such as the B.OT.A. Tarot, is used for divination, it is best applied to mundane matters, where as the meaning may be different if applied to a more subjective and/or "spiritual" plane, which is shown in Qabalistic Tarot of Thoth and the Night Sun Tarot.
Qabalistic Tarot or Tarot of the Hermetic Qabalah, knows that there is only One Spirit (One Energy), and that all Planes of Spirit are Spiritual Planes. After all, I AM Spirit and I operate a "living being" and I AM Here, so to me this is a "Spiritual" plane, albeit a more sensual one. As is stated in the oriental philosophy of the Tao: " If it is There, it is Here and if it is Here, it is There, and if it is not Here, it isn't There, and if it isn't There, it isn't Here." *1.) All koan aside: The Presence of Spirit is "Spiral Energy", as both the Word Spirit and Spiral are from the Greek root word Spiro- which means breath or to breathe. Hence, the Breath in the body proves the Spirituality of the body as a plane of Greater Self. Therefore, in all cards, there is a greater Understanding than just the physical one, which is obviously shown by there connecting paths to the whole tree. Often, the placement of the cards, in a structured reading will clarify this statement.
Yet, through all this supposed astrological doom and gloom, when this card is thrown during a reading, it means that emotional matters are definitely arranged and settled...for the moment. Pleasure proceeds, to dissipation and debauchery, as energy-in-motion follows the second law of thermodynamics [..All things proceed from order to disorder]. The message here is ," Enjoy the moment of completion, all is done; sit back, have a 'dram', but avoid debauch, as soon you'll be called on to preform at your best", as the gematria of 1+0=1, which means an event/issue needing Willful intent will soon apply.
Therefore, 10 is a number that when added together [1+0 =1), you end up at the beginning. It is the "up the down staircase" number that places us on top of one flight of stairs, only to find out that we are at the bottom of another flight.
In Tarot, it is common to call the 10 of Cups, permanent success, but Qabalists know it is only on one issue and that the only permanency in this One Energy Universe, is change/transformation. Yet here dances the "Lord of Material Happiness", the 10th Sephiroth, Malkuth and all seems well...but then we all know how long happiness in material things lasts!
*1)
ko·an[ˈkōän]NOUN
a paradoxical anecdote or riddle, used in Zen Buddhism to demonstrate the inadequacy of logical reasoning and to provoke enlightenment.
ORIGINJapanese, literally ‘matter for public thought,’ from Chinese gōngàn ‘official business.’
RELATED FORMS-koan(noun)koans(plural noun)
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- When the 10 of Cups card is thrown during a divination: it indicates that in the next 10 weeks or 10 months you will experience a sense of deep vitality and energy radiating outward accompanied by feelings of contentment and satiety flowing through all aspects of your life.
- A heart felt contentment.
- This could also represent a deeply satisfying relationship with the Pisces people in your life; those born during the time of February 21 to March 21.
- Enjoy the moment of success, and celebrate it with others and fear not moving on into other new areas of creation when done.
- Remember, that Permanent and lasting success is a warning that here your life experience can be held as a comfortable end, a kind of death, or you can enjoy the moment of success and then try something new, transforming the energy into another momentary motion.
- A even deeper esoteric meaning is that, It's okay to party, but let not the party be your goal.
- Rather, use the expressive power of your celebration to laughingly move on into other unexplored areas of energy transformation.
- A way to remind yourself of this is just remove the zero from the end of the number 10 which will give you 1. That would be the Ace of Cups, which represents the dawning of new ideas and enters the realm of reasoning consciousness where choices are made.
- In this realm of creation, strength comes from adversity and necessitates purposeful "new ideas" to continue a happy and successful life..
- In ten weeks or ten months, matters will be or have been, definitely arranged and settled as wished.
- There is permanent and lasting success implied here and happiness because of inspiration from "Above".
- This is a less sensual happiness than the Nine of Cups but some would say a deeper happiness.
- There is pleasure but dissipation is soon to be.
- Quietness and peace making are also implied.
- Kindness and generosity.
If ill dignified by the accompanying cards:
- Wantonness, waste, and excess are implied.
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