3 Cups

The 3 of Cups is always a joyous and celebratory card and the Druidcraft deck is no execption!  In this card we see the rarified 'love' expanded to include other people: friendship.

Never underestimate the importance of friendship in your life - lovers may come and go, but your true friends hang on in there.

We see three men seated together at a table with their goblets raised in the familiar 'Cheers!' toast.  
Who are these three men?  Are they friends? Colleagues? Family members?

They are clearly celebrating some mutually enjoyable situation - perhaps a treaty is signed (they are all wearing different coloured robes, perhaps denoting different clans?) or the hard work of the harvest is concluded in good time and with abundant results.

At this time of year, it is time to look at the relationships that you have been taking for granted.  Look to the friendships that you have let slide - make contact, rekindle warm feelings for each other!

Prince of Cups

As the energies of the Princess of Cups begins to ebb away, the incoming tides bring us the dreamy idealist:  The Prince of Cups.

This is not a fast-moving high achiever of a Prince - look at his horse, he's out for a stroll rather than a gallop.

Barefoot and holding his Cup before him like an enchanted chalice, the Prince of Cups is an imaginative, romantic soul.  But he's prone to day-dreaming and not getting terribly much done by way of questing!

The Prince of Cups can be found seated cross-legged on the floor at parties, strumming his guitar and gazing into the eyes of his latest love.  His words of love will be sincere, but, sadly, because he's an airy-fairy-change-my-mind Knight, also short-lived.  

As a Knight, he hasn't got the experience to be in a relationship for the long haul.  Although he really wishes that he was.  He really TRIES to be constant, you know? But the heart wants what the heart wants!

So what is he telling us?

Are your day-dreams sucking energy out of achieving your goals?

What steps can you take to turn your dreams into reality? 

Forgive your fickle heart!

Understand other people's change of heart!

#druidcraft #tarot

2 Cups

The promise of the Druidcraft Tarot's Ace begins to be fulfilled in the 2 of Cups.

Two lovers stand in a windswept landscape, gazing into each other's eyes as they hold their cups aloft for each other to drink from.

They are equally matched in stature, pose and even in the billowing of their robes!

No surprises here - this card is about love.

While it often speaks of romantic love - and usually the misty-eyed idealistic stage of a relationship, it can also point towards partnership in other areas too; maybe family, friends, or colleagues.

The 2 of Cups promises that the creative juices will be flowing when like-minded people work together.

This card can also indicate that it's time for you to be more loving to a part of yourself too - perhaps you deny or ignore your creative urges?

For me, the woman having the stone at her side signifies good solid groundedness on one partner's part.  The Water beside the male and the grave behind him can indicate that a tumultuous emotional time is now behind one of the partners in the situation.

The 2 of Cups asks:

Where can you bring healing through love?
How can you be more loving towards your creative self?

#tarot #druidcraft  (Ali)

Ace of Cups | Autumn Equinox | Water

As we approach the Autumn Equinox, the fiery energy of the Wands is finally extinguished by the arrival of the watery Cups suit.   Cups are associated not only with the element of water, but also the season of Autumn and of dusk.

Water spills from a golden chalice, flowing in five rivulets over the brim and onto the rocks beneath. There the chalice waters mingle with the fast-flowing waters from a river which is fed by a distant thundering waterfall.

A sliver of waning moon hangs in the darkening sky.  Dusk is a 'gateway' time where the boundaries between our world and the Otherworld mingle and merge;  a time for inspiration to strike.

In the foreground we see over-hanging hazel branches, pregnant with nuts.

As an Ace, we know that this card offers us a gift from the divine source.  Since this is the suit of Cups, we know that the gift will be associated with relationships and love in its many forms.

The salmon and the hazel nuts remind us that this gift is also a form of wisdom (both are strongly associated in the Druidic tradition with knowledge); being emotionally intelligent is to be prized. The Ace offers us this gift in its potential state; the results of the Ace will take time to germinate and make green shoots in our lives.

We are offered the gift of loving abundance.  Will you accept?

#tarot #druidcraft   (Ali)

XVI The Tower

Cernunnos helped us identify our delusions and obsessions and with that new awareness, we now encounter the destructive forces of the Druidcraft's Tower.

A bolt of lightning darts out from a brooding storm cloud, striking at the great tower, shattering the walls and illuminating the interior with its explosive power.

Two small figures plummet from the Tower, towards the rocks beneath.

When The Tower appears in our life we can expect cataclysmic change - change that threatens to dash us to death on the rocks; change that rocks our very foundations.

We begin to immure ourselves into Towers from the moment we are first labelled with a role:  We are Son, Daughter.  Perhaps at the same time we become brother or step-sister.  Then we become 'Pupil', 'Colleague', 'Friend', 'Enemy', 'Boss', 'Girlfriend', 'Wife', 'Mother' and so on and so on.

These are all roles that society has made for us, or we have made for ourselves.

You know that you are not the same person with your children that you are when you are advising on mortgages in your place of work.  You are not the same person that you are with your lover that you are with...your husband?

They are ALL you, but different facets of you.  Behind that ever-growing facade YOU sit, unable or unwilling to start chipping at the plasterwork that holds you, Rapunzel-like, in the Tower.

SUDDENLY!

A bolt of lightning comes out of nowhere and strikes at your Tower.  And yes, your very foundations are rocked as your defining roles are blown apart, like bricks in the wall.

And the Tower begins to shake and tumble to the ground.

But, in that terrifying demolition and release comes an exhilarating liberation and opportunity for growth.  You can clear away the rubble, get back to your foundations and build anew.

Tower asks:

Where has destruction provided illumination?
What roles no longer define you?
How does the way you see yourself differ from how others see you?


#druidcraft #Tarot    (ali)

Princess of Cups | Autumn Equinox

The Wheel now moves around to the first of the Druidcraft's Cups Court cards to guide us through the next couple of weeks: The Princess of Cups

A young woman stands, barefoot, at the side of a lake.  A breeze catches the surface of the water and plays with her golden hair as she holds a golden goblet respectfully before her.

Behind her a great tree displays its russet foliage and fields show their golden harvest.

Welcome to autumn!

The Princesses in the Druidcraft equate to the Pages in a traditional deck and symbolise the same child-like approach to life - straightforward and open hearted.

No matter what age you are and how challenged you have been by life, the Princess of Cups asks you to open your heart and welcome in tender feelings.  Now is the time to let warm and loving heart-felt burst through the dam of fear that you may have built up within you to keep yourself 'safe'.

As the harvest is scythed and the fruits picked from the tree, she asks us:

Are you prepared to cut down your old pains?
How can you be more loving in the world?
Are you ready to open your heart?

#tarot #druidcraft  (Ali)


PS - this painting was originally entitled 'Autumn' before she became the Princess of Cups.

10 Wands

The fiery suit of Wands has blazed out since the Summer Solstice.  As we encounter the energy of the 10 of Wands we are also preparing for the powerful emotional currents of Cups to pour into our lives at the Autumn Equinox.

As we look back over the energies of the Wands, we can see that it is of constant challenge, struggle and hard-won victory.

The image in this card shows a man struggling beneath the weight of his burden - 10 Wands.  He has made it along the winding path and is now on the final push to reach his destination before nightfall. The path gives way to a rocky climb - is nothing ever easy for the Wands?!

The sparky promise of the Ace of Wands is now reduced to the glowing embers of the campfire.

We can accrue the trappings of a successful life and it can be wonderful, but they are also a burden to that striving, constantly moving flame that makes the Wands so special.  The task in the 10 of Wands is to recognise where you are over-wrought and over-burdened and DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!

What can the man in this card do? 

For a start he could get off those boulders and go up the grassy slope - same journey, just makes life a little easier.

He could take some time to organise his burden so that becomes easier for him to carry.

He could set some of his burden aside?

The 10 of Wands asks:

Do you know where you are carrying too much on your own?

What are you going to do about it?

#tarot #druidcraft   (Ali)