Ten of Cups

The core meaning of the Ten of Cups is satiety, or how we feel about having or having had enough. There are several directions to take the interpretation of this, including some darker ones. The RWS card is a little misleading here, unless it’s intended to be ironic, and encourages the writers of Tarot books to speak about perfected, permanent, perpetual, or lasting happiness and success. One might think these people had never been humans living on earth, but then many humans on earth believe they are going to just such a place after their death. Feelings don’t stay still or last. The subject is indeed about finding or preparing to find some continuity after our needs get satisfied, or after we’ve had enough, but most of the time this concerns moving on, or returning to earth and reality. This is not a fairytale fantasy of happily ever after. Reality doesn’t work this way. But feelings and emotions might feel things this way, leading to a temporary sense of lasting perfection. Abraham Maslow has a good handle on this process. We progress from one satis- faction to another, meeting our most basic or fundamental needs first, and then moving on to our more optional ones, our electives. If this were managed with some care, we could satisfy ourselves upwards instead of around in circles. We can get the preliminaries and priorities behind us and then go to work on such lofty pursuits as working out our chosen destinies. This implies not getting carried away with our shortsighted illusions of permanence and perfection. Perhaps it sounds a little on the rational side for the suit of cups, but our feelings can learn lessons as well, and the formula is simple enough: meet needs, then move on. The state of affairs depicted here could be more happiness than you ever thought was possible, something too good to be true or to last. With satiety, we have already reached a climax or culmination. We still have some happiness to spend before it falls away or slips from our grasp. We can make it last a little longer, or invest in something more durable. We often move ourselves forward with exaggeration and hyperbole, but beyond a point, this just doesn’t serve us well, if it ever really served us at all. An excess of wine leads to a hangover, an excess of speed to a crash. Two-thirds complete might be the most perfect state for us all. There is a fullness of feeling or emotion that can still be fully appreciated, even in the face of realism, even though lasting happiness can’t hold onto this much. The word sustainability is horribly overused by our parasitic species and its pro- growth economy. As Edward Abbey remarked, ‘growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell.’ At bottom the word sustain means to hold something up from below, to provide or take care of the preconditions needed for something to exist. The focus is not on the thing by itself. With this understanding, a sustainability of affect or attitude is what we are looking for with this card. The happiness here will need to move on soon. What we want to maintain or improve are the conditions of its arising. De-growth to sustainable levels is often proposed as the best solution for humanity’s global woes. We can develop an analog for our internal world and calm ourselves down, redefine what ‘enough’ means, cultivate better gratitude, and maybe take some deep breaths instead of racing onward for more than we need. We might try wanting what we already have. But then we have innate challenges to contend with, like boredom with steady states. We want to look at how things are shaping up down the road before us. There is some implication of this in the depiction of the two children at play in this card: there is a new generation coming up now. The blessed state may yet keep regenerating. Impermanence of feeling and attitude will not be defeated, but a maturing attitude may still look to adjusting the meaning we have for contentment and remaining thankful for the chance to witness this grand parade as it moves on by. We can cultivate what is more likely to last for a little longer. If this time is used to re-choose, to redefine what is important and not, then some of our losses can be selected, or made matters of choice. Permanence is out, but who but those afraid of the unknown would want it? As Susan Ertz wrote, “Millions long for immortality who do not know what to do with themselves on a rainy afternoon.” The Yijing counterpart, Gua 43, Decisiveness, concentrates on satiety, or having had enough, but more in the sense of having ‘had it up to here.’ The subjects of the lines are busy getting carried away or going obsessively over the top. They are advised to unload some of the feeling or emotion that is driving them before they go too far: to back it down, or dial it back, or dial it down. Their hyperbole and exaggeration are to be supplanted by straightforward disclosure and exposé. The greater hyperbole, the sooner it will fail. It’s a time to put the feeling in its proper place, to discharge it, to deflate it. No matter how exciting this has all been, we prepare to wrap or sum it up now. We beat disappointment to the finish line with realism. We need to become less extreme, more sustainable, and prepared to let ourselves down safely and proactively, but without ruining the moment of consummation with pessimism.