The equal armed cross represents perfect balance. This is the moment when the divine spirit touches the individual mind, so the first impression that comes to mind – that of the Christian communion – can definitely be applied to the Ace of Cups. But the greatest of these is love.Oh, it gets even better: The chalice is your own subconscious mind. Now I know in part then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.Īnd now these three remain: faith, hope and love. Now we see through a glass, darkly then we shall see face to face. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. But where there are prophecies, they will cease where there are tongues, they will be stilled where there is knowledge, it will pass away.

It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. The two were beautiful joined in Cocteau's film Beauty and the Beast that I mentioned above. A passage that speaks of agape love, rather than eros - though to me, the distinction is moot, because erotic love without selfless love is merely lust and possessiveness. I am also reminded - very strongly - of 1 Corinthians 13. It demands nothing, and so obtains everything. Without anything but water held out in a pair of cupped hands, love can create anything, and wear down even the most unmovable situation. Yes, looking at this card, love is so simple. Garance, in The Children of Paradise, tells her beloved, the complex, frightened Baptiste - 'It is so simple, love.' 'Here, you are thirsty, drink.' There is a charge of compassion and trust flowing through this image, and also a strange kind of eroticism - Beauty giving a drink to the Beast.Īnd this brings me to a third reference. The fey is putting out its cupped hands because it is the most natural gesture in the world. Simply, humbly, without drama or thought of reward. When we love absolutely, unconditionally, we can do nothing else but hand out our heart - our emotions, our love, our compassion, our understanding - the way this fey is handing out water. One of the most touching and erotic acts of love ever filmed. It reminds me too of that scene in Cocteau's Beauty and the Beast, when Beauty stoops to the stream to cup water in her hands for the Beast to drink. This Ace of Chalices fey has an all-seeing heart shining through its golden eyes. I am reminded of what the little prince learnt - and taught: 'we only really see with the heart what is essential is invisible to the eyes'. It reminds me of St Exupéry's The Little Prince - it has the little prince's same fresh, unsullied but deeply serious innocence. A little fey - girl or boy, we don't know - with big trusting eyes, stands in a large cup of aquamarine water, cupping water in its hands to offer to someone outside the image. It captured my heart the minute I saw it. I admit that the Ace of Cups is one of the first cards I look for in any deck, and to me, a failed Ace of Cups can mean the difference between a successful deck, and a merely so-so one.

Ace of chalices