Two of Cups

Upon initial examination of the Two of Cups it seems to be a love story, a story of partnership and equality that appears to be protected and embraced by a blessing from above. This inspires me to link the card to one of the greatest love stories ever told.

The Taj Mahal meaning ‘crown of palaces’ is a white marble mausoleum located in Agra, India. It was built by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his third wife, Mumtaz Mahal.

In 1631, Shah Jahan was grief-stricken when his third wife, Mumtaz Mahal, died during the birth of their 14th child. He so loved his wife that he built her the most beautiful tomb ever erected, to honour her even in death. The emperor’s grief illustrates the love story traditionally held as an inspiration for Taj Mahal. Mumtaz Mahal’s tomb is the central focus of the entire complex of the Taj Mahal. The principal mausoleum was completed in 1648 and the surrounding buildings and garden were finished five years later. Emperor Shah Jahan himself described the Taj in these words

Should guilty seek asylum here,


Like one pardoned, he becomes free from sin.


Should a sinner make his way to this mansion,


All his past sins are to be washed away.


The sight of this mansion creates sorrowing sighs;


And the sun and the moon shed tears from their eyes.


In this world this edifice has been made;


To display thereby the creator's glory.

A longstanding myth holds that Shah Jahan planned a mausoleum to be built in black marble across the Yamuna river. It was suggested that he was overthrown by his son before he could build it. Ruins of blackened marble across the river in Moonlight Garden seemed to support this legend. However, excavations carried out in the 1990s found that they were discolored white stones that had turned black.  A more credible theory for the origins of the black mausoleum was demonstrated in 2006 by archaeologists who reconstructed part of the pool in the Moonlight Garden. A dark reflection of the white mausoleum could clearly be seen, befitting Shah Jahan's obsession with symmetry and the positioning of the pool itself. This black pool and the reflection of the white Taj Mahal in it would have perfectly demonstrated the duality in this love story. The living and the dead, the light and the dark, the masculine and the feminine, the yin and the yang. The physical and the spiritual. One could almost be forgiven for relating this reflection of partnership back onto the card in which two large wings hover above the couple, as if blessing their union in this world and beyond. This echoes a verse in the Bible that says: What God has joined together, let no man put asunder.

Soon after the Taj Mahal's completion, Shah Jahan was disposed of by his son and put under house arrest at nearby Agra Fort. He spent the last 14 years of his life imprisoned there, but with a view of the Taj Mahal from his window. Upon his death he was buried in the mausoleum next to his wife. They were together again, even in death.

The Two of Cups. A card that tells us the story of perfect balance, equal partnership, and speaks of honour in relationships that can transcend even the physical. 

Two of Swords

A long time ago, when it was still believed that the world was flat, there lived a man named Ferdinand Magellan. Like the figure on the two of Swords card, Magellan needed to make a choice – blindfolded in a sense – with no guaranteed outcome. A choice that would require a huge leap of faith, given the times he lived in.

Magellan decided to sail around the world, without any knowledge of what may await him or his crew. To not do so, I imagine, would have been to choose an almost certain fate in mediocrity.

Against all odds this man Magellan convinced a crew to join him as he set off to become the first person to circumnavigate the earth.

He and his crew were met with many challenges. Most of his crew did not survive this dangerous mission, and yet, they chose to face the dangers of the high seas, and the possibility that they might fall off the end of the world, in order to challenge themselves and change the world as they knew it.

All choices have consequences, and today’s card reminds us of this. When faced with a choice we seldom have guarantees regarding the outcome, but we do know that all choices have consequences.

The consequences for Magellan and his crew was that many of them would not make it, many would die in the attempt. But, Magellan made it, he succeeded in being the first person to circumnavigate the world, a victory that would not have been possible without a huge leap of faith on his part, and a willingness to face whatever consequences arose from his choice.

Our daily choices may not necessarily be as dramatic as Magellan’s was, but we occasionally find ourselves in positions where we really do not know what the outcome of our choices might lead to. It is at times like these that a leap of faith is needed as well as a healthy understanding that we need to be prepared to live with the consequences of our choices.

The figure in the card is blindfolded, she is flanked by two swords, a decision or choice must be made and she cannot begin to see the outcome of either. Yet, the only way out of breaking this deadlock is to take the plunge and chose one or the other. Even the wrong choice is better than no choice.

If we think that we do not really have choices to make every day, consider this:

After we choose to get out of bed in the mornings, we choose to either approach our day with dread or desire. How do we choose to project ourselves onto our world today? Do we tackle the less-desirable or difficult tasks that we have left for last, or do we get them out of the way first? Do we choose to live in appreciation of the beauty that surrounds us, even on the subway or in the concrete jungle of our cities? Do we choose to frown or smile at strangers. Have you ever noticed how much better that first cup of coffee tastes in the morning when you sip it with a song in your heart rather than a black mood stifling your thoughts?

If nothing else, today’s card reminds us to make conscious choices though our day, without guarantee of reward or outcome. One never knows what a difference even a small positive gesture can make to someone who crosses our path, however briefly. Like Magellan’s it may even change someone’s world for the better.

In closing we could do as William Blake suggested in Auguries of Innocence: We could choose to:

To see a world in a grain of sand,

And a heaven in a wild flower,

Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,

And eternity in an hour.

Two of Wands

This card depicts the image of a man standing between two wands or staves examining the world globe in his right hand as he looks out over a vast body of water.

These pillars between which he is standing is reminiscent of the pillars of Hercules that flank the entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar, upon which was inscribed the warning “Non plus ultra” meaning nothing further beyond. This served as a waring to sailors and navigators to go no further.

In medieval times most people lived on the Mediterranean, with Morocco to their left and Spain to their right, thereafter nothing but the vast Atlantic Ocean. The Atlantic Ocean was largely unexplored, it was the great unknown. There were no maps to navigate an explorer, thus a voyager would be entering the unknown with nothing but the stars to guide him. The man in this card could very well be standing at the Straits of Gibraltar, with the Mediterranean behind him, about to venture into an exploration of the unknown.

Shifting paradigms. There comes a time when each of us must stand between the pillars of Hercules where we embark on new idea, new sciences, new thought; and find the courage of our conviction to step through and into new paradigms of discovery.

One such man was Christopher Columbus who – being Italian – approached the Italian aristocracy for financial support on his envisioned exploration of discovery.  They scorned him and withheld  their support. After all the church did not encourage its people to embark on such explorations. The fear of new knowledge and influences brought into a society under the firm control of the church was far too great. The world, they said, was flat, and the fate of anyone who dared to explore the great unknown Atlantic Ocean was to drop off the end of the earth.

Not deterred and more determined than ever, Columbus turned to the Spanish Royal family for support. They were more adventurous and generous, financing his fleets the supplies needed onboard and the wages for his crews. Columbus ventured forward, exploring new paradigms against great adversity and fear of the unknown, ultimately resulting in the discovery of North America.

The suit of Wands represents action. It informs us that now is the time to act on our convictions. Time to step through these Pillars of Hercules that represent new paradigms of ideas. It is time to explore those ideas, allowing them to take us on a journey of discovery. Who knows what we may discover about ourselves and our world if we dare to question what we think we already know.

Are we ready to depart our comfort zones, our metaphorical Mediterranean, to explore the unknown? Can we allow ourselves to consider and examine new ideas and possibilities? Where will they take us? What great oceans do we need to conquer, what great unknowns will we need to face? We may approach this as Rita Dove did when she said “I prefer to explore the most intimate moments, the smaller, crystallized details that we all hinge our lives on.”

Perhaps we aren’t as adventurous as Columbus was, our discoveries less grand, but each of us are regularly faced with new thoughts and ideas that do not comfortably sit within our own frame of reference. Ideas that we might otherwise dismiss as they would require us to move out of our comfort zones in order to explore them. Today we are invited to examine those unknowns and to shift our own paradigms in doing so. What better way to do this than to follow the example of Rudyard Kipling by beginning with questioning everything. He said:

“I kept six honest serving men

They taught me all I knew

Their names are What and Why and When,

And How and Where and Who.”