Welcome to Exploring Emotions with Tarot! This week we will be exploring the Ace of Cups and how it can be used as a prompt or brainstorming in our writing as well as a means to explore our own emotions when we need to.

It’s often said that a picture is worth a thousand words. I believe the reason for this is that visual art has a way of tapping into our symbolic and metaphoric vocabularies on a subconscious level. In doing so, it evokes emotion within us.

This series aims to explore this phenomenon using tarot with intentional purpose. The goal is to have a personal emotive keyword bank by the end of the series inspired by the images of these cards to enhance our communication, both in our writing and our every day lives.

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Introduction of the Card

The Ace of Cups is card number 36 in the deck within the Orphalese Tarot program and the first card of the Cups Suit in the Minor Arcana of the Tarot.

If you haven’t learned about the basic meanings of this card, you can learn about it here from my Tarot Thursday series.

Let’s take a look at the following examples of this card below.

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Card Examples

Notice the similarities between them and take note of their differences. Do any of these move you more than the others? Take your time and allow yourself to feel something with these cards.

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The Writing Exercise

The assignment for this exercise is to write what you are feeling as inspired by this card. Either choose your emotive keyword first and get started from there, or start with your feelings and work your way towards a single keyword.

The purpose here is to have a singular emotional word associated with the card that you can later use for randomized prompts or for your mood charts.

You also want to have practice using this emotional word. What does this feel like to you? When does it happen? What do you do when it occurs?

The more often you use it, the easier it becomes to express it and the more effective you become in expressing yourself when you need to.

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What this Card Means to Me

The keyword I choose for this card is: INSPIRED.

Thanks to You

My spirit pulses within me and it inspires
me to dance
as my voice begs to sing.
I taste the crisp autumn air and feel
ready to burst with laughter
even though my eyes sting from too much crying.

Yes, for too long I’ve been crying
in the silence, lost, and bereft of inspiration.
Hoping to once again have a reason to laugh,
smile, stand up, and begin dancing.
Oh, how I have craved for the feeling
of sunlight pour through my veins and sing.

Do you know when your soul, in it’s brightest, clearest note, sings?
And when it’s gone there’s nothing to do but cry.
Do you know how this feels?
How about living in the raging fire of the spiritually inspired?
They yank my galvanized chains and call it dancing.
They point their fingers and stand there, laughing.

And it’s this incessant laughter
that I cannot abide, stills my song,
and freezes the clumsy steps of my dance.
Deep within the empty chambers of my heart, I hear my crying
and I’m completely drained. No longer inspired.
The chill of the coming winter’s bite is what I’m feeling.

With the rapid beat beneath my feet, I feel
the pelt of their laughter
upon my back as they celebrate the theft of my inspiration.
For what purpose now shall I sing,
I wonder and choke back my cries.
For what reason now is there to dance?

I ponder this as I watch the autumn leaves in the breeze dance.
Then it’s your gentle hand in mine that I feel.
I’m reminded that it’s okay to cry.
A few words later and we’re laughing.
You can’t hear it, but my soul is singing
from the fullness of my heart inspired.

Thanks to you I’m inspired, to find my authentic dance
and allow the truest notes of my song ring out with my feelings,
whether it’s the spring of my laughter, or the winter of my cries.

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I would love it if you linked or pinged back what you wrote so I could see where you went with this.

Happy writing!

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Mythic Tarot by Liz Greene (Author), Juliet Sharman-Burke (Author), Tricia Newell (Illustrator) © 1989
Dragon Tarot by Terry Donaldson (Author), Peter Pracownik (Illustrator) © 1996
Universal Tarot by Lo Scarabeo (Author), R. De Angelis (Illustrator), A. E. Waite (Designer) © 2001
Shadowscapes Tarot by Stephanie Pui-Mun Law (Illustrator), Barbara Moore (Author) © 2011
Mystic Dreamers Tarot by Heidi Darras (Illustrator), Barbara Moore (Author) © 2012
Gilded Tarot by Ciro Marchetti (Illustrator), Barbara Moore (Author) © 2015
Mystic Faerie Tarot by Linda Ravenscroft (Illustrator), Barbara Moore (Author) © 2015
Steampunk Tarot by Aly Fell (Illustrator), Barbara Moore (Author) © 2012
Images used for the poetry art were provided by pixabay.com under a CC0 license.