9 of Cups

9 of Cups Dali Tarot by Johannes Fiebig, published by Konigs Furt: “Mature Talents. You have brought a uniqueness that will make the world a better place. Do not hide your talents. Be generous and show others the treasures you have to offer. You are a treasure. The key to the unfolding of your inner wealth is love. Love is not just an emotion. It relates to not just the correct measure of kindness in a relationship, but a way of encountering the world with love. The greater your love, the greater the benefits for yourself and others. Any material gains have no value unless they are fulfilled with the respect and the love you personally add to create a greater whole, bearing in mind the strengths and weaknesses, and advantages and disadvantages of yourself and others. Practical Advice: Stop internal dialogue, the nervous chattering of your internal voice. Find inner peace. Don’t parrot or imitate the ideas of others. You have talents that are blooming. Find a framework for your high-flying plans. Love your tasks and enjoy the excitement of work well done.”

9 of Cups The Star Tarot by Cathy McClelland, published by REDFeather, an imprint of Schiffer Publishing: 

“This card represents boundless love and abundance and is the best card in the pack. It is the “wish” card of good fortune. You are completing a cycle of deep understanding, healing and transformation. You are drinking from the Divine Grail. You are on the thresh-hold towards a new stage of your development. Now is the time to grow further spiritually. It is a time to share, to quieten yourself, meditate, consider how your new found blessings might impact you and those around you. You are being supported by divine providence to create something new, working with the magical spirit so your soul purpose will be activated. Be careful what you ask for - you might receive it! The 9 contains 3 trinities: love, wisdom and will.” 

9 of Cups by Juliet Sharman-Burke, The New Mythic Tarot, published by Llewellyn Worldwide. A wish fulfilment, a hope of paramount importance or a long cherished desire has finally been achieved. The experience of great emotional joy, ecstasy, genuine love, and sensual pleasures. Psyche has returned from the Underworld, rescued from the death-like sleep which imprisoned her. It is the second marriage of Eros and Psyche. A union made from dishonesty cannot be expected to be a happy one. It will only flourish when the worst sides of both partners are revealed, recognised and accepted. Relationships that work through the greatest of trials will often yield the most fruit. The willing trials of Eros and Psyche resulted in opportunities to re-work their relationship with love and honestly. The card can signify a very important gift, the herald of a great achievement, or a special moment when a long awaited dream has come true. Enjoy the recall of this realisation. 

Reversed: Personally, I would add that the 9 of Cups is one of the highest cautionary cards in the Tarot deck. Its perfection of circumstances is an extreme position, rarely attained in a lifetime for most of us. It is a wedding, a graduation, a lottery win, a number one in the charts, or a big business deal. It is not a permanent position and if we seek for constant extremes rather than balance, harmony, and alignment with the scales at rest, we will yo-yo. 

When we move too far to the east; we end up in the west! How shocking these flipping situations are! What we gain outwardly, our inner world seeks to address and says ‘what about me?’ It is rare that outward and inward satisfactions occur together. What ever happens outwardly, we take our inner life with us. This is the role of the pilgrimage which feeds our vacuous inner world with wisdom and nourishment, truth and spiritual maturity.  

This 9 of Cups card draw is the position of the pretentious idealist, the one who seeks to cover the pain of the world with false laughter, buys everyone drinks, yet they cannot deal with the hardships of reality and so they seek escapism in a fantasy that does not hold. It dissipates as everything does! 

I am a believer in the human condition. How often do we hear of those who have great outward success, are however, feeling inwardly awkward and empty. This is often why they seek publicity and high levels of publicity, because they are hungry for the fantasy love that feeds their struggling desperation for recognition, and to pamper their delicate ego. The unassailable quest was often for a mythical flower, an alchemical stone, an ancient cup, a long lost book or maybe a tomb of a holy warrior who sacrificed his life for others, and people would spend their entire life and all their resources trying to find the object of their desire. But only the purest of hearts would find such a precious object, because the greatest find is in the heart - as god sees - and this is not what is admired by the craving egos of this world. Be careful what you wish for - you might receive it! Seek no passing transient angel hair that dissipates on the wind. Seek long term commitment, through your life purpose. 

Wendy Stokes