Scorpio in the Druidcraft Minor Arcana: The Six of Cups

Back to the Minor Arcana! Today we move on to the Six of Cups, which - in the system I use - is linked to the second decan (3^rd-12^th November) as well as the Sun in Scorpio. (For more information on this system of Planetary and Zodiacal dignities, I recommend Elizabeth Hazel's Tarot Decoded, published by Weiser, 2004.)

Just to recap: Scorpio is the fixed Water sign, so Scorpio will want to know what’s going on at a deeper level, not at the bubbly surface – “still waters run deep” is a good description of Scorpio’s focus.  Scorpio has to dive into the depths in order to unearth the root of a problem and will then try to transform it – but it may take a crisis or something similar before Scorpio will take that plunge.  

But here we have Sun in Scorpio – the addition of warmth and light!  Sounds like the complete opposite of dark and intense Scorpio, you might think?  If we think in terms of the Sun representing our creative energy, then in Scorpio that creativity is going draw on our emotions and intuition at a very deep level.  This could be seen as the need to express our creativity by changing or transforming something.  The Sun also represents our core being, our vitality – and in Scorpio this could connect us to our inner desires, perhaps even compulsions or obsessions.  The ‘shadow’ side of this – the reversal, if you like – could be seen as emotional obsessions or fixations getting in the way of the expression of creative energy, or perhaps the fear of losing control.

Six of Cups (detail): Druidcraft Tarot

How is the Sun in Scorpio reflected in the Six of Cups, in particular in the Druidcraft Tarot?  The man looks out at the children playing, remembering perhaps his own childhood – or perhaps imagining the children’s future. In the accompanying book, Philip and Stephanie Carr-Gomm write that “at the level of the heart, linear time ceases to exist. ...Instead, past and present merge and there is only love, or any number of other feelings”¹.  With Six being the number of harmony, the feelings (Cups) we’ve brought with us from the past, from the depths of childhood (or beyond), are integrated with those we experience now.  Like the Sun’s energy, this merging or integrating of memory allows us to penetrate what’s going on at the surface and to go deeper into the root of the issue.  The Sun’s warmth and light also allows old love to be uncovered or to be rekindled – relationships that have died coming back to life.

The downside, or ‘shadow’, of the Sun in Scorpio/Six of Cups is the potential trap of living in the past, or of dwelling on the past, which is not always a happy experience. That takes us back to the image of the Five of Cups – focusing on what’s past and ignoring what we still have.  Those five empty cups are full in the Six of Cups, full to the point of overflowing. It’s not clear whether the cup the man holds is empty, but the point is – he’s looking out at the five full cups, not down at the one he holds.  The fear of disappointment has been overcome so that more pleasant things can be enjoyed.  Enjoy what we have now, and let go of what’s past – that, to me, is the essence of the Sun in Scorpio!

¹ Druidcraft Tarot created by Philip Carr-Gomm and Stephanie Carr-Gomm, illustrated by Will Worthington, published by Connections