AMP: Artists' Meeting Place and Resource Collective

Week of November 20th - 27th

There's a wonderful slideshow on Karen and Vicki's site where you can view each card. Just choose Ace of Cups from the pick list:

Motherpeace Slideshow

Given that the upcoming week will involve family togetherness, the home and bonds with those we care the most deeply about, it doesn't surprise me at all that this card came up this evening. The atmosphere of the card is peaceful, portraying a blue sky with few clouds, a calm, aqua ocean, a soothing fountain and two swans. The querent, naked and vulnerable, dives into the fountain head first.

In Motherpeace and most other decks, Aces herald gifts. They correspond to the number one - new beginnings - and The Magician, the first card in the series of major arcana. The author of the deck, Vicki Noble, terms them "first causes, roots, primary impulses." The suit of Cups corresponds with the element of water, which symbolizes the flow of emotion.

The cup symbolizes a fountain of joy, abundance and an immersion into one's deepest emotions - especially love. The querent dives in with abandon and surrender, ready to connect with the core of his/her emotional being. The feeling that I get from this card - thank you, DC - is a thirst for deep emotion that is swept under the rug during busy everyday life. The querent feels a great sense of relief at being able to dive in and drink, cleanse, swim and play in a sea of his/her most enjoyable and healing emotions. If this card could speak, it would say, "Aaaahhhhh......." The soul has let go into the ocean of unconditional love that it has long needed to nurture itself. This time is like a vacation or retreat, a long-awaited rest in a place of beauty and inspiration.

During major holidays like Thanksgiving, many families who barely speak during the rest of the year make the effort to be together, sometimes driving hundreds of miles. Although the cooking and the preparation and the traveling can be stressful, when it's all said and done there are warm feelings - even if Uncle Charlie got drunk and tried to set the Christmas tree on fire. We'll laugh about it later and tell stories for years to come......We realize that despite conflict and faults, unconditional love prevails.

The horrific events of the past five years have made most of us realize that we could lose the most precious, valuable things we possess in an instant. I wrote in a recent blog that sometimes I think we've numbed out and look for more and more distractions from our pain. Yet there are those few and sometimes far between moments that make us realize that all the money, toys and indulgences in the world can never replace those we love. For one afternoon, one dinner, we let our guard down and let that love nourish us.

So, if the opportunity comes up, make amends or repair communication with those precious gems we call family, friends and thorns in our sides. Don't forget to take the time to unconditionally love yourself. Here's DC again - And if you're lonely, take a look at why you think you need to look outside yourself for that love. You don't. It's right there within you, dive in. You're just as precious as anyone else on the journey. There's plenty of room on the path and it's your divine right to be here.

"For if that which you seek, you find not within yourself, you will never find it without."

~ Starhawk, The Charge Of The Goddess

Love,

Parthena

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