Cancer in the cards: The Three of Cups

Three of Cups (trimmed):

© Sharman-Burke/Caselli Tarot

The Three of Cups is linked to Mercury in Cancer – and to the middle ten days of Cancer (approximately the 1^st-11^th July).  We’re still looking at the Cancerian ideals here, so it’s Mercury that gives the Three a different ‘flavour’ from the Two.  We’ve moved from the duality of the Two, the giving and receiving of love in the relationship to the communicating of our emotions.  Mercury relates to communication, the mind, and language, as well as learning and acquiring the basic information we need in order to survive.  It is associated with siblings, young relatives, neighbours – and friends! 

Three of Vessels (trimmed):

© Wildwood Tarot

The Three of Cups often symbolizes the sharing of good times with friends.  A common image shows three dancing figures, all communicating and sharing that joy, celebrating the moment.  

‘The moment of culmination and the period of transition from euphoria to the resumption of ordinary life’, as Juliet Sharman-Burke puts it, in her Beginner’s Guide to Tarot. ‘The moment’ – that’s another Mercurical link; Mercury is another name for quicksilver, so the planetary associations also include quickness, a fleeting moment in time... 

Don’t you just love those dancing cranes of the Wildwood?! It's such a joyful image - in fact, that's the word (Joy) that the deck's creators chose for this card.

Three of Cups (trimmed):

© Haindl Tarot

In  the Haindl Tarot, we see that overflowing of love in the natural flow of water, filling up the cups and overflowing, symbolizing the love and joy - the outpouring of emotions - to be shared (or in more Mercurical terms – communicated) with the important people in our lives. True joy...and definitely something to be celebrated!

Beginner’s Guide to the Tarot created by Juliet Sharman-Burke, illustrated by Giovanni Caselli, published by Connections

Haindl Tarot, created by Hermann Haindl, published by U.S. Games Systems, Inc.

Wildwood Tarot created by Mark Ryan and John Matthews, illustrated by Will Worthington, published by Connections

Pain and pleasure? Margarete Petersen’s Nine of Cups

Nine of Cups (trimmed):
© Margarete Petersen Tarot

No traditional jolly-looking chap appears in Margarete Petersen’s version of the Nine of Cups! Instead we have a pearl in a shell, bathed in bright (sun?) light, possibly on a beach… the colours conjure up evening, for me  - the Cups correspondence with twilight-evening, perhaps. Pearls are metaphors for something rare, fine, admirable, and valuable – so I can see why Margarete Petersen has used this to represent the penultimate goal.  You’d think there was nothing more to gain after this, but it is the ‘almost but not quite’ idea.

In the accompanying book, Petersen talks about the pain involved in the process of reaching this goal: the pearl forms from a grain of sand embedding itself in the soft flesh of the mollusk, and the continuous pain the creature feels as its shell covers the grain of sand with calcium carbonate to create the pearl.  So it’s not all happy-happy in this version – there’s a need to accept the pain in order to truly appreciate the gift from the ‘depths of the ocean’ (i.e. from within ourselves, if we allow it to surface).

There is a connection to the Three, I feel. The Three of Cups shows three dancing people, seemingly free from any pain, but the Nine illuminates the deep joy that comes from having been through the darkness. 

Pearl rests in its shell

Born from pain, appreciate 
the gift from the depths.

Margarete Petersen Tarot, AGM-URANIA, 2004.

Celebrate! Margarete Petersen’s Three of Cups

Although it’s the Three of Cups, I can make out at least five figures in this card. All have their arms raised over their heads – I see them dancing, celebrating. They’re all in the right side of the square, facing two amorphous ‘blobs’ of brown in the bottom left. In the accompanying book, Margarete Petersen writes of forgetting, rather than suppressing worries, so perhaps these unidentifiable shapes represent the worries being laid to one side but still insight, rather than being buried.  

Three of Cups (trimmed): © Margarete Petersen Tarot

At any rate, the sense of celebrating friendships and letting go of our concerns at least for now. It seems appropriate in these days of turmoil post-EU referendum, I think. It doesn’t mean we lose sight of what’s going on, but let’s not forget what we do have and celebrate those relationships right here, right now. 

Set worries aside –

Play, celebrate, dance for joy!

Fresh start tomorrow. 


Margarete Petersen Tarot, AGM-URANIA, 2004.