Nine of Cups

The Plate

The table behind him is draped to the floor. Blue cloth covers the high curved counter completely, so whatever holds up the nine cups — legs, trestles, the whole apparatus of support — is hidden from us; the arc of gold simply floats there at the height of his head. In front of it sits the man himself on a plain wooden bench, red hat, crossed arms, and the broadest smile in the minor arcana. Waite (1911) says a goodly personage has feasted to his heart's content, which is visibly true. Notice, though, what the seating plan does: the cups stand behind him, above him, arranged for an audience. He cannot reach one from where he sits without getting up.

The Reading

This is the wish card of the old cartomancy, and the plate honors the tradition — something wanted has arrived, in full, with cups to prove it. The satisfaction is real and the card upright grants it without irony: feasts do happen, wishes are sometimes simply granted, and crossed arms can mean nothing more sinister than a man at rest. Still, the picture keeps its one reservation in plain sight. Plenty arranged for display is a different thing from plenty in use, and the drape hides the structure that holds the show up. The Three of this suit poured its cups into company; these nine are an exhibit.

Reversed, the reservation takes over. The smile fixes, the arc becomes inventory, and the wish, examined at last from the bench, turns out to have been mostly the wanting.

In the School

Cups carry Water, the suit of feeling in the elements table of Foundations of Astrology. The nines bring each element to its fullness, and Water's fullness must decide between the exhibit and the pour.