Nine of Cups...and some reading resource tips!

I did a reading yesterday for a wonderful client gifted with amazing artistic talent.  We did a Celtic Cross spread, and the Nine of Cups fell in the "will come to pass" position.  This card is a phenomenal coup in a reading--it means, in relation to the question, a future of assured satisfaction; the ability to maintain and radiate inner security; generosity and goodwill; emotional, material, and physical well-being; and a bunch of other good stuff.  Even when things that are rosy start to fade slightly, the buds will bloom again. It's often called the "Wish Card."  I was thrilled to turn this over for her.

I chose this card to write about for two reasons:  because of my great experience with it yesterday, and because it's a good example of a card that I think isn't quite as intuitive as others in the deck.  In other words, if you look at the image, you see a man with folded arms sitting in front of a curved buffet table.  On the table sit nine cups.  In the other cards I discussed below, the scenes are so richly depicted that one's intuition might be able to nail the traditional meaning of the card; in the case of this card, it might be harder to get a read from intuition alone.

There are clues, certainly.  The man looks jovial, content, and happy.  Cups signify emotions, relationships, things at the very heart, literally, of life.  There are nine Cups, and nine is a number of culmination, fruition, and achievement.  The suit of Cups is associated with water--love, fluidity, intuition, inner peace.  Yellow dominates the card, a color of positivity.  The tablecloth mimics a waterfall, which stresses the things associated with Cups and water.

There's more; this is just to offer a few ideas on how to look at a card without a fully fleshed-out scene.  My point is that intuition is critical in doing readings, but learning the traditionally assigned meanings of the cards is, in my opinion, a key first step.  Reading with other systems (psychology, Qabalah, numerology, astrology, Christianity, mythology, etc.) can be picked up as you go with study.  It's not a deal-breaker if a new reader chooses not to use these or other systems, but I happen to think that having multiple reading systems at your disposal as resources just makes you that much more articulate with the cards.

So, where do you go to learn assigned card meanings?  This is a very good question, as there is no one easy answer!  I think it's a great idea to try and find in-person classes at your level, or even outside your level just for the review or exposure.  I like this because it's interactive.  The next best thing is to read whatever books you can get your hands on.  If you're just starting and you're interested in learning to read the cards, Joan Bunning's Learning the Tarot is an excellent book.  There are plenty of exercises, but you'll learn  something whether you do the exercises or just read and consider them.  A. E. Waite's Pictorial Key to the Tarot offers some explanations and keywords and was published in 1911, just a couple of years after he created the Rider-Waite-Smith deck with Pamela Coleman Smith, the artist.  Waite's book is often the starting point for other books in terms of offering the initial set of intended meanings for the Rider-Waite deck and its clones.  I recommend it first because it's a classic, second because the author created the most popular deck in use in the West today. There are so many other wonderful books; here are just a few, linked to their Amazon pages: 78 Degrees of Wisdom by Rachel Pollack; Tarot for Your Self by Mary K. Greer; Tarot for Life by Paul Quinn. For even more suggestions, visit my Amazon store on the Interactive Tarot site, where I wrote a brief blurb for every book and deck I recommended!

If you're interested in learning to read the Tarot, feel free to contact me at jennifer@interactivetarot.net and I can give you references for a good set of starter readings.  We all have to start somewhere.  My best advice?  Don't be afraid--jump in and trust your instincts!