Connect with Tarot's Ten of Cups: Today's Tea & Tarot Blog

--Hyperion Night, Beanblossom's Tea and Tarot

The Ten of Cups

Connections. Networks. Divine Love. Positive Relationships. Contentment.

“A human being is part of the whole, called by us the Universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separate from the rest—a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”—Albert Einstein, 1972, Letter to the New York Post.

I’m writing this from a conference hotel on the beach in glorious St. Petersburg, Florida. One of the speakers cancelled at the last minute, and a friend of a friend on the conference committee, in the depths of desperation, called me.

At the conference, I noticed there are two types of networkers. First, there are the power networkers, moving like sharks through the crowd, focusing on the Important People and ignoring the Can’t-Do-Nothing-For-Me’s. These people collect business cards, follow up assiduously, and leverage their connections. They give, but only to get something.

Then there’s my friend Fran. Fran remembers the name of every person she meets, player or no. And she remembers the details of their lives, because she’s genuinely interested. When she returns home, her mental filing system is on the constant lookout for ways she can help these people—with work, with other connections, with information. And she does this without expectation of getting things back, because she likes people. Needless to say, Fran is never at a loss for work. People recognize her genuine goodness and love her.

I confess, I fall somewhere in between the two types. Both take effort, and I’m at the beach in Florida FFS. But Fran is a goddess.

Connection. If we don’t have it, we want it. And as social animals, connection is really less want than need. Yet in our interconnected society, true human connection seems to be out of reach. We connect to get something, or we don’t connect at all. Too many of us spend more time connected to our screens than to each other. And though we tell ourselves we’re being “social” online, are we? Because if so, why is it so easy to be harsh to someone online and so difficult when we’re looking them in the eyes?

The odd/ironic thing about connection is, to have it, first we must be connected to ourselves. We need to be present. And once we are present, once we’re grounded and aware, only then can we connect at a deep level to others.

Of course, like all Tarot cards, the meaning of the Ten of Cups depends on the question, the placement of the card, and the cards surrounding it. When it’s laid out as the last card in a reading, it’s often the “all will be well” card. When it represents the past or current situation, The Tarot deck’s Ten of Cups card asks us to reflect on the past or current state of our relationships and how we can deepen them.

So ask yourself: what does “deeply connected” mean to you? What would it feel like to be in a deeply connected relationship?