THE PAGE OF CUPS
This week I pulled the Page of Cups, a watery card connected to the unconscious.
I'm getting to know a new deck: the gorgeous Modern Witch Tarot by Lisa Sterle. This deck is a creative tribute to Pamela Colman Smith's illustrations for the Rider-Waite-Smith deck, full of the same rich imagery but with cute contemporary details.
The Page of Cups
Of all the court cards, the page is the youngest and has the most raw and childlike relationship with their suit. Cups are the symbol of emotion, and the Page of Cups has an unfiltered relationship with their intuition. In this illustration, the Page of Cups stands on solid ground, with the choppy sea behind them, they have laced-up trainers, but instead of running they stand in an elegant, balletic pose. They are holding a pink chalice, from which a fish emerges. The Page of Cups looks at the fish with curiosity, not fear or discomfort, and accepts the surprise without judgment. This card asks us to consider where in our lives we feel like a fish out of water, or where we might recieve an unexpected visitor from the deep.
The main colour of this card is smoky-pinkish-grey, the colour of late winter and early spring; the colour of strange storms. The card balances pastels and primaries, a vibrant aqua sea against the yellow wood of a boardwalk, pink flowers on a blue jacket, and perhaps most vividly, the pink of the chalice, deeper than the smoky background, as though in this universe pink were the colour of precious metal, rather than gold.
Jupiter in Pisces
The Page of Cups channels the dreamy astrological weather of Jupiter in Pisces. Jupiter is the planet of luck, abundance, generosity, and expansion. Our collective desire for healing is being answered by this beautiful transit. Pisces is where Jupiter is at home, and this makes it a gentle, loving transit with no friction. Pisces is the final sign of the zodiac, and it is the sign of winter thawing into spring, of transformation and renewal. The Page of Cups asks us to tap into our intuition, to accept whatever falls into our cup this week, to drink deep.
What we see from earth as Jupiter's red spot, is a great storm that has raged for hundreds of years. Similarly, Pisces can take the form of apparently tranquil waters that have deep currents, and sudden shifts. The Page of Cups asks us to accept the unexpected, to flow into the currents, and to let the tidal waves wash over us.
We can inhabit the water like a queer mermaid, slipping beneath the waves and sitting on rocks, diving deep, and letting the current wash us ashore. We are neither of the sea nor the land, but can draw nourishment and creativity from either world.
Watery Week
Even as I have been stuck behind a computer for most of this week, I have found respite in water: drizzly walks, long baths, peppermint tea, burning oil on my altar as I completed my to-do list. Outside the rain-drenched trees gleam green, and black tulips look luscious in the gloom. Yesterday, I opened the fridge and took out six tomatoes that looked an inviting, glossy red. When I touched them, they were slick with slime. I have dreamed of water most nights, of plunging into the North Sea fully clothed, of jumping from a rainbow-lit pier, a glitter of scales in my peripheral vision.
My own writing focus this week has been on a folk horror tale provisionally titled "Lamb". it is about the shift from winter to spring, the scent of lanolin, crushed blackberries, and a sacrifice. I invite you to work on your own writing supported by the energy of the Page of Cups.
Writing Prompts
Write a piece of work that follows dream-logic. This could be as simple as recording one of your own dreams, and following the narrator-character as they shift between experiences and wander through an impossible geography. If you are interested in this kind of creative form of dream-logic writing, you might enjoy Kazuo Ishiguro's The Unconsoled.
Write a watery piece that has as its setting a body of water: a lake, swimming pool, the ocean, a deep well. For inspiration you might enjoy John Cheever's 'The Swimmer', an unsettling story about a man who tries to swim home through the pools of the neighbouring houses. 'The Crane Wife' by CJ Hauser is a nonfiction piece about marine biology, watery Japanese mythology, and a broken engagement.
The Page of Cups asks us to consider the perspective of the fish out of water. The fish is in a gilded cup, or in the case of the Modern Witch, in a smoky pink chalice, surrounded by luxury, but out of its life-giving element. Can you write a journal entry, or creative exercise, about the experience of being a fish out of water, living in a gilded cage. This could be from your own perspective, or from that of a character you create.
We've just begun to feel Mercury retrograde, as its shadow period began this week. Mercury retrograde asks us to revisit projects we've started and perhaps abandoned, to revise, return, rethink, and re-love. Is your heart called to an old manuscript that you worried wasn't ready for the light of day? Is there a story from your past that keeps resurfacing, gently asking you to tell it? Is there a task you keep putting off that could be done in an hour or two, giving you the freedom to focus on dreamier tasks?
Writing Rituals
Pour yourself a ritual salt bath, light a candle, splash in the saltwater like a mermaid, and keep your notebook near by to record any watery dreams that emerge.
Listen to rain recordings and meditate on a new project.
Take a new notebook (I know you have one), leave it by your bed, and start a dream work journal. Write down your dreams as soon as you can on waking in as much detail as possible. leave 2 blank pages following each recorded dream. Put thirty minutes on your calendar to come back to the journal. use the first page to pull out any main symbols in the dream, and jot down your immediate, intuitive responses to these symbols. Then, on the next page, think of up to three different possible meanings for each symbol. This will begin to train your mind to consider the multiplicity of meaning in your dreams, and the power of your unconscious mind.
Dream Work Tarot Spread or Journalling Prompts
Take a single dream from your dream work journal, and dive into it further. You can choose to pull three cards and use them to guide the answers to these questions, or you can journal your responses.
What is my dream revealing that will help me with my current writing project?
Where is my dream showing me what the challenges are with my current writing project?
What is the psychic atmosphere of this project?