Ace Of Cups

inside this vessel, everything
the close-packed chaos that I am
the flames, the flowers
the sun and moon
the stones and snails
the clouds and things unborn within
my world inside an open cup
that floats upon the sea

which is just water.

everything within, but outside:
water.


Another draw, another Ace. And this is unlike any I've seen before; it's going to take more time than this, and I guess a dig around Conway's writings, to understand what she was getting at, but it does chime with something I learned a long time ago:

Water is everywhere.

You, every tree, every other living thing, is mostly water. And water cycles - the water that composes such a large proportion of your body mass was elsewhere not long ago - you breathe in water that other people have breathed out, you drink water that was once rain, or came from a river with its source in the glaciers, and as you bathe in the sea, the water stings your eyes and runs over your skin. The sun will bring that water out, take it from your skin, turn it into thunder. Water is the primary way your body interacts with the rest of the world. If you give any credence to the idea of beingness, just to say that everything is what it is, then this interaction can be called a form of communication.

(I was shown this by a tree I sat beneath, a tree that took ground water through its roots far below me).

That is physical water; element water runs below matter and below meaning, finding form in both. If you believe that; if that's the language you speak to the world in. The language of water is best recorded in the Tao Te Ching, where it is said that it is good to be like water, because water can wear down the hardest wall. (And that comes from China's five-element system of water, earth, wood, metal and fire).

Conway's Ace of Cups stands on a still sea, but its sides are lapped by water; it is when we build barriers that the water seems hard, and cannot flow. Would that life inside the glass be so tumultuous if it were exposed to the gentle currents? Or would the storm within expand to cover the whole sea?

When the Ace of Cups comes, best to go with the flow - the flow of language and feelings. Best to let what is inside flow out, and let what is outside flow in.


Images of the Ace of Cups:

The Intuitive thingy which I was just looking at.

The Osho Zen thing which says what I just said.

Scapini's fountain of life.

The Roots of Asia: it is not and cannot be what Water looks like, but it is close to how I choose to envision it - coming from below, supporting the night and the world with itself.