Tarot Reading does John still love me and will he act on his feelings soon?
Reading Performed 05/04/2016 at 8:16 PM
Click or scroll down for the meaning of each position and the interpretation of its card.
Visual Layout
Card One
Judgement from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Weakness, pusillanimity, simplicity; also deliberation, decision, sentence.
Papus's Divinatory Meanings (When Upright)
Change of Position.
Card Description
I have said that this symbol is essentially invariable in all Tarot sets, or at least the variations do not alter its character. The great angel is here encompassed by clouds, but he blows his bannered trumpet, and the cross as usual is displayed on the banner. The dead are rising from their tombs--a woman on the right, a man on the left hand, and between them their child, whose back is turned. But in this card there are more than three who are restored, and it has been thought worth while to make this variation as illustrating the insufficiency of current explanations. It should be noted that all the figures are as one in the wonder, adoration and ecstacy expressed by their attitudes. It is the card which registers the accomplishment of the great work of transformation in answer to the summons of the Supernal--which summons is heard and answered from within. Herein is the intimation of a significance which cannot well be carried further in the present place. What is that within us which does sound a trumpet and all that is lower in our nature rises in response--almost in a moment, almost in the twinkling of an eye? Let the card continue to depict, for those who can see no further, the Last judgment and the resurrection in the natural body; but let those who have inward eyes look and discover therewith. They will understand that it has been called truly in the past a card of eternal life, and for this reason it may be compared with that which passes under the name of Temperance.
Card Two
Four of Pentacles from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
The surety of possessions, cleaving to that which one has, gift, legacy, inheritance.
Papus's Divinatory Meanings
Loss of money.
Card Description
A crowned figure, having a pentacle over his crown, clasps another with hands and arms; two pentacles are under his feet. He holds to that which he has.
Card Three
Queen of Wands from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
The Wands throughout this suit are always in leaf, as it is a suit of life and animation. Emotionally and otherwise, the Queen'A dark woman, countrywoman, friendly, chaste, loving, honourable. If the card beside her signifies a man, she is well disposed towards him; if a woman, she is interested in the Querent. Also, love of money, or a certain success in business.
Papus's Divinatory Meanings
Dark woman. A friend. A serious person. A very good counsellor. The mother of a family.
Card Description
The Wands throughout this suit are always in leaf, as it is a suit of life and animation. Emotionally and otherwise, the Queen's personality corresponds to that of the King, but is more magnetic.
Card Four
Ten of Wands from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
A card of many significances, and some of the readings cannot be harmonized. I set aside that which connects it with honour and good faith. The chief meaning is oppression simply, but it is also fortune, gain, any kind of success, and then it is the oppression of these things. It is also a card of false-seeming, disguise, perfidy. The place which the figure is approaching may suffer from the rods that he carries. Success is stultified if the Nine of Swords follows, and if it is a question of a lawsuit, there will be certain loss.
Papus's Divinatory Meanings
Uncertainty.
Card Description
A man oppressed by the weight of the ten staves which he is carrying.
Card Five
Ten of Swords from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Advantage, profit, success, favour, but none of these are permanent; also power and authority.
Papus's Divinatory Meanings (When Upright)
Uncertainty in the hatred.
Card Description
A prostrate figure, pierced by all the swords belonging to the card.
Card Six
Nine of Pentacles from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Prudence, safety, success, accomplishment, certitude, discernment.
Papus's Divinatory Meanings
A durable fortune.
Card Description
A woman, with a bird upon her wrist, stands amidst a great abundance of grapevines in the garden of a manorial house. It is a wide domain, suggesting plenty in all things. Possibly it is her own possession and testifies to material well-being.
Card Seven
Wheel of Fortune from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Increase, abundance, superfluity.
Papus's Divinatory Meanings (When Upright)
Fortune. Destiny.
Card Description
In this symbol I have again followed the reconstruction of Eliphas Levi, who has furnished several variants. It is legitimate--as I have intimated--to use Egyptian symbolism when this serves our purpose, provided that no theory of origin is implied therein. I have, however, presented Typhon in his serpent form. The symbolism is, of course, not exclusively Egyptian, as the four Living Creatures of Ezekiel occupy the angles of the card, and the wheel itself follows other indications of Levi in respect of Ezekiel\'s vision, as illustrative of the particular Tarot Key. With the French occultist, and in the design itself, the symbolic picture stands for the perpetual motion of a fluidic universe and for the flux of human life. The Sphinx is the equilibrium therein. The transliteration of Taro as Rota is inscribed on the wheel, counterchanged with the letters of the Divine Name--to shew that Providence is imphed through all. But this is the Divine intention within, and the similar intention without is exemplified by the four Living Creatures. Sometimes the sphinx is represented couchant on a pedestal above, which defrauds the symbolism by stultifying the essential idea of stability amidst movement. Behind the general notion expressed in the symbol there lies the denial of chance and the fatality which is implied therein. It may be added that, from the days of Levi onward, the occult explanations of this card are--even for occultism itself--of a singularly fatuous kind. It has been said to mean principle, fecundity, virile honour, ruling authority, etc. The findings of common fortune-telling are better than this on their own plane.
Card Eight
Page of Pentacles from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Prodigality, dissipation, liberality, luxury; unfavourable news.
Papus's Divinatory Meanings (When Upright)
A fair child. A messenger. A letter.
Card Description
A youthful figure, looking intently at the pentacle which hovers over his raised hands. He moves slowly, insensible of that which is about him.
Related Posts
Card Nine
Four of Swords from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Wise administration, circumspection, economy, avarice, precaution, testament.
Papus's Divinatory Meanings (When Upright)
Enemy defeated.
Card Description
The effigy of a knight in the attitude of prayer, at full length upon his tomb.
Card Ten
Two of Wands from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Between the alternative readings there is no marriage possible; on the one hand, riches, fortune, magnificence; on the other, physical suffering, disease, chagrin, sadness, mortification. The design gives one suggestion; here is a lord overlooking his dominion and alternately contemplating a globe; it looks like the malady, the mortification, the sadness of Alexander amidst the grandeur of this world's wealth.
Papus's Divinatory Meanings
Opposition to the beginning of an enterprise.
Card Description
A tall man looks from a battlemented roof over sea and shore; he holds a globe in his right hand, while a staff in his left rests on the battlement; another is fixed in a ring. The Rose and Cross and Lily should be noticed on the left side.
Card Eleven
The Tower from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
According to one account, the same in a lesser degree also oppression, imprisonment, tyranny.
Papus's Divinatory Meanings (When Upright)
Ruin. Deception.
Card Description
Occult explanations attached to this card are meagre and mostly disconcerting. It is idle to indicate that it depicts min in all its aspects, because it bears this evidence on the surface. It is said further that it contains the first allusion to a material building, but I do not conceive that the Tower is more or less material than the pillars which we have met with in three previous cases. I see nothing to warrant Papus in supposing that it is literally the fall of Adam, but there is more in favour of his alternative--that it signifies the materialization of the spiritual word. The bibliographer Christian imagines that it is the downfall of the mind, seeking to penetrate the mystery of God. I agree rather with Grand Orient that it is the ruin of the House of We, when evil has prevailed therein, and above all that it is the rending of a House of Doctrine. I understand that the reference is, however, to a House of Falsehood. It illustrates also in the most comprehensive way the old truth that "except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it." There is a sense in which the catastrophe is a reflection from the previous card, but not on the side of the symbolism which I have tried to indicate therein. It is more correctly a question of analogy; one is concerned with the fall into the material and animal state, while the other signifies destruction on the intellectual side. The Tower has been spoken of as the chastisement of pride and the intellect overwhelmed in the attempt to penetrate the Mystery of God; but in neither case do these explanations account for the two persons who are the living sufferers. The one is the literal word made void and the other its false interpretation. In yet a deeper sense, it may signify also the end of a dispensation, but there is no possibility here for the consideration of this involved question.
Related Posts
Card Twelve
Page of Wands from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Dark young man, faithful, a lover, an envoy, a postman. Beside a man, he will bear favourable testimony concerning him. A dangerous rival, if followed by the Page of Cups. Has the chief qualities of his suit. He may signify family intelligence.
Papus's Divinatory Meanings
A dark child. A friend. Also represents a message or letter from a near relation.
Card Description
In a scene similar to the former, a young man stands in the act of proclamation. He is unknown but faithful, and his tidings are strange.
Related Posts
Card Thirteen
Nine of Swords from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Death, failure, miscarriage, delay, deception, disappointment, despair.
Papus's Divinatory Meanings
Duration of hatred.
Card Description
One seated on her couch in lamentation, with the swords over her. She is as one who knows no sorrow which is like unto hers. It is a card of utter desolation.
Card Fourteen
Six of Wands from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Apprehension, fear, as of a victorious enemy at the gate; treachery, disloyalty, as of gates being opened to the enemy; also indefinite delay.
Papus's Divinatory Meanings (When Upright)
Failure.
Card Description
A laurelled horseman bears one staff adorned with a laurel crown; footmen with staves are at his side.
Card Fifteen
Eight of Cups from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Great joy, happiness, feasting.
Papus's Divinatory Meanings (When Upright)
Jealousy and trouble.
Card Description
A man of dejected aspect is deserting the cups of his felicity, enterprise, undertaking or previous concern.
Card Sixteen
Knight of Cups from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Arrival, approach--sometimes that of a messenger; advances, proposition, demeanour, invitation, incitement.
Papus's Divinatory Meanings
Young, fair man. A friend. The lover or the loved one.
Card Description
Graceful, but not warlike; riding quietly, wearing a winged helmet, referring to those higher graces of the imagination which sometimes characterize this card. He too is a dreamer, but the images of the side of sense haunt him in his vision.
Card Seventeen
Ace of Pentacles from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Perfect contentment, felicity, ecstasy; also speedy intelligence; gold.
Papus's Divinatory Meanings
Commencement of good fortune. Inheritance. Gifts. Economy.
Card Description
A hand--issuing, as usual, from a cloud--holds up a pentacle.
Card Eighteen
Seven of Wands from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
It is a card of valour, for, on the surface, six are attacking one, who has, however, the vantage position. On the intellectual plane, it signifies discussion, wordy strife; in business--negotiations, war of trade, barter, competition. It is further a card of success, for the combatant is on the top and his enemies may be unable to reach him.
Papus's Divinatory Meanings
Certain success.
Card Description
A young man on a craggy eminence brandishing a staff; six other staves are raised towards him from below.
Card Nineteen
Four of Cups from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Novelty, presage, new instruction, new relations.
Papus's Divinatory Meanings (When Upright)
Serious obstacles from others.
Card Description
A young man is seated under a tree and contemplates three cups set on the grass before him; an arm issuing from a cloud offers him another cup. His expression notwithstanding is one of discontent with his environment.
Card Twenty
Five of Cups from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
It is a card of loss, but something remains over; three have been taken, but two are left; it is a card of inheritance, patrimony, transmission, but not corresponding to expectations; with some interpreters it is a card of marriage, but not without bitterness or frustration.
Papus's Divinatory Meanings
Obstacles overcome.
Card Description
A dark, cloaked figure, looking sideways at three prone cups two others stand upright behind him; a bridge is in the background, leading to a small keep or holding.
Card Twenty One
Strength from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Power, energy, action, courage, magnanimity; also complete success and honours.
Papus's Divinatory Meanings
Justice.
Card Description
A woman, over whose head there broods the same symbol of life which we have seen in the card of the Magician, is closing the jaws of a lion. The only point in which this design differs from the conventional presentations is that her beneficent fortitude has already subdued the lion, which is being led by a chain of flowers. For reasons which satisfy myself, this card has been interchanged with that of justice, which is usually numbered eight. As the variation carries nothing with it which will signify to the reader, there is no cause for explanation. Fortitude, in one of its most exalted aspects, is connected with the Divine Mystery of Union; the virtue, of course, operates in all planes, and hence draws on all in its symbolism. It connects also with innocentia inviolata, and with the strength which resides in contemplation. These higher meanings are, however, matters of inference, and I do not suggest that they are transparent on the surface of the card. They are intimated in a concealed manner by the chain of flowers, which signifies, among many other things, the sweet yoke and the light burden of Divine Law, when it has been taken into the heart of hearts. The card has nothing to do with self-confidence in the ordinary sense, though this has been suggested--but it concerns the confidence of those whose strength is God, who have found their refuge in Him. There is one aspect in which the lion signifies the passions, and she who is called Strength is the higher nature in its liberation. It has walked upon the asp and the basilisk and has trodden down the lion and the dragon.
The Meanings of these Tarot Cards
Card One
Judgement from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Weakness, pusillanimity, simplicity; also deliberation, decision, sentence.
Papus's Divinatory Meanings (When Upright)
Change of Position.
Card Description
I have said that this symbol is essentially invariable in all Tarot sets, or at least the variations do not alter its character. The great angel is here encompassed by clouds, but he blows his bannered trumpet, and the cross as usual is displayed on the banner. The dead are rising from their tombs--a woman on the right, a man on the left hand, and between them their child, whose back is turned. But in this card there are more than three who are restored, and it has been thought worth while to make this variation as illustrating the insufficiency of current explanations. It should be noted that all the figures are as one in the wonder, adoration and ecstacy expressed by their attitudes. It is the card which registers the accomplishment of the great work of transformation in answer to the summons of the Supernal--which summons is heard and answered from within. Herein is the intimation of a significance which cannot well be carried further in the present place. What is that within us which does sound a trumpet and all that is lower in our nature rises in response--almost in a moment, almost in the twinkling of an eye? Let the card continue to depict, for those who can see no further, the Last judgment and the resurrection in the natural body; but let those who have inward eyes look and discover therewith. They will understand that it has been called truly in the past a card of eternal life, and for this reason it may be compared with that which passes under the name of Temperance.
Card Two
Four of Pentacles from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
The surety of possessions, cleaving to that which one has, gift, legacy, inheritance.
Papus's Divinatory Meanings
Loss of money.
Card Description
A crowned figure, having a pentacle over his crown, clasps another with hands and arms; two pentacles are under his feet. He holds to that which he has.
Card Three
Queen of Wands from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
The Wands throughout this suit are always in leaf, as it is a suit of life and animation. Emotionally and otherwise, the Queen'A dark woman, countrywoman, friendly, chaste, loving, honourable. If the card beside her signifies a man, she is well disposed towards him; if a woman, she is interested in the Querent. Also, love of money, or a certain success in business.
Papus's Divinatory Meanings
Dark woman. A friend. A serious person. A very good counsellor. The mother of a family.
Card Description
The Wands throughout this suit are always in leaf, as it is a suit of life and animation. Emotionally and otherwise, the Queen's personality corresponds to that of the King, but is more magnetic.
Card Four
Ten of Wands from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
A card of many significances, and some of the readings cannot be harmonized. I set aside that which connects it with honour and good faith. The chief meaning is oppression simply, but it is also fortune, gain, any kind of success, and then it is the oppression of these things. It is also a card of false-seeming, disguise, perfidy. The place which the figure is approaching may suffer from the rods that he carries. Success is stultified if the Nine of Swords follows, and if it is a question of a lawsuit, there will be certain loss.
Papus's Divinatory Meanings
Uncertainty.
Card Description
A man oppressed by the weight of the ten staves which he is carrying.
Card Five
Ten of Swords from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Advantage, profit, success, favour, but none of these are permanent; also power and authority.
Papus's Divinatory Meanings (When Upright)
Uncertainty in the hatred.
Card Description
A prostrate figure, pierced by all the swords belonging to the card.
Card Six
Nine of Pentacles from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Prudence, safety, success, accomplishment, certitude, discernment.
Papus's Divinatory Meanings
A durable fortune.
Card Description
A woman, with a bird upon her wrist, stands amidst a great abundance of grapevines in the garden of a manorial house. It is a wide domain, suggesting plenty in all things. Possibly it is her own possession and testifies to material well-being.
Card Seven
Wheel of Fortune from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Increase, abundance, superfluity.
Papus's Divinatory Meanings (When Upright)
Fortune. Destiny.
Card Description
In this symbol I have again followed the reconstruction of Eliphas Levi, who has furnished several variants. It is legitimate--as I have intimated--to use Egyptian symbolism when this serves our purpose, provided that no theory of origin is implied therein. I have, however, presented Typhon in his serpent form. The symbolism is, of course, not exclusively Egyptian, as the four Living Creatures of Ezekiel occupy the angles of the card, and the wheel itself follows other indications of Levi in respect of Ezekiel\'s vision, as illustrative of the particular Tarot Key. With the French occultist, and in the design itself, the symbolic picture stands for the perpetual motion of a fluidic universe and for the flux of human life. The Sphinx is the equilibrium therein. The transliteration of Taro as Rota is inscribed on the wheel, counterchanged with the letters of the Divine Name--to shew that Providence is imphed through all. But this is the Divine intention within, and the similar intention without is exemplified by the four Living Creatures. Sometimes the sphinx is represented couchant on a pedestal above, which defrauds the symbolism by stultifying the essential idea of stability amidst movement. Behind the general notion expressed in the symbol there lies the denial of chance and the fatality which is implied therein. It may be added that, from the days of Levi onward, the occult explanations of this card are--even for occultism itself--of a singularly fatuous kind. It has been said to mean principle, fecundity, virile honour, ruling authority, etc. The findings of common fortune-telling are better than this on their own plane.
Card Eight
Page of Pentacles from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Prodigality, dissipation, liberality, luxury; unfavourable news.
Papus's Divinatory Meanings (When Upright)
A fair child. A messenger. A letter.
Card Description
A youthful figure, looking intently at the pentacle which hovers over his raised hands. He moves slowly, insensible of that which is about him.
Related Posts
Card Nine
Four of Swords from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Wise administration, circumspection, economy, avarice, precaution, testament.
Papus's Divinatory Meanings (When Upright)
Enemy defeated.
Card Description
The effigy of a knight in the attitude of prayer, at full length upon his tomb.
Card Ten
Two of Wands from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Between the alternative readings there is no marriage possible; on the one hand, riches, fortune, magnificence; on the other, physical suffering, disease, chagrin, sadness, mortification. The design gives one suggestion; here is a lord overlooking his dominion and alternately contemplating a globe; it looks like the malady, the mortification, the sadness of Alexander amidst the grandeur of this world's wealth.
Papus's Divinatory Meanings
Opposition to the beginning of an enterprise.
Card Description
A tall man looks from a battlemented roof over sea and shore; he holds a globe in his right hand, while a staff in his left rests on the battlement; another is fixed in a ring. The Rose and Cross and Lily should be noticed on the left side.
Card Eleven
The Tower from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
According to one account, the same in a lesser degree also oppression, imprisonment, tyranny.
Papus's Divinatory Meanings (When Upright)
Ruin. Deception.
Card Description
Occult explanations attached to this card are meagre and mostly disconcerting. It is idle to indicate that it depicts min in all its aspects, because it bears this evidence on the surface. It is said further that it contains the first allusion to a material building, but I do not conceive that the Tower is more or less material than the pillars which we have met with in three previous cases. I see nothing to warrant Papus in supposing that it is literally the fall of Adam, but there is more in favour of his alternative--that it signifies the materialization of the spiritual word. The bibliographer Christian imagines that it is the downfall of the mind, seeking to penetrate the mystery of God. I agree rather with Grand Orient that it is the ruin of the House of We, when evil has prevailed therein, and above all that it is the rending of a House of Doctrine. I understand that the reference is, however, to a House of Falsehood. It illustrates also in the most comprehensive way the old truth that "except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it." There is a sense in which the catastrophe is a reflection from the previous card, but not on the side of the symbolism which I have tried to indicate therein. It is more correctly a question of analogy; one is concerned with the fall into the material and animal state, while the other signifies destruction on the intellectual side. The Tower has been spoken of as the chastisement of pride and the intellect overwhelmed in the attempt to penetrate the Mystery of God; but in neither case do these explanations account for the two persons who are the living sufferers. The one is the literal word made void and the other its false interpretation. In yet a deeper sense, it may signify also the end of a dispensation, but there is no possibility here for the consideration of this involved question.
Related Posts
Card Twelve
Page of Wands from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Dark young man, faithful, a lover, an envoy, a postman. Beside a man, he will bear favourable testimony concerning him. A dangerous rival, if followed by the Page of Cups. Has the chief qualities of his suit. He may signify family intelligence.
Papus's Divinatory Meanings
A dark child. A friend. Also represents a message or letter from a near relation.
Card Description
In a scene similar to the former, a young man stands in the act of proclamation. He is unknown but faithful, and his tidings are strange.
Related Posts
Card Thirteen
Nine of Swords from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Death, failure, miscarriage, delay, deception, disappointment, despair.
Papus's Divinatory Meanings
Duration of hatred.
Card Description
One seated on her couch in lamentation, with the swords over her. She is as one who knows no sorrow which is like unto hers. It is a card of utter desolation.
Card Fourteen
Six of Wands from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Apprehension, fear, as of a victorious enemy at the gate; treachery, disloyalty, as of gates being opened to the enemy; also indefinite delay.
Papus's Divinatory Meanings (When Upright)
Failure.
Card Description
A laurelled horseman bears one staff adorned with a laurel crown; footmen with staves are at his side.
Card Fifteen
Eight of Cups from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Great joy, happiness, feasting.
Papus's Divinatory Meanings (When Upright)
Jealousy and trouble.
Card Description
A man of dejected aspect is deserting the cups of his felicity, enterprise, undertaking or previous concern.
Card Sixteen
Knight of Cups from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Arrival, approach--sometimes that of a messenger; advances, proposition, demeanour, invitation, incitement.
Papus's Divinatory Meanings
Young, fair man. A friend. The lover or the loved one.
Card Description
Graceful, but not warlike; riding quietly, wearing a winged helmet, referring to those higher graces of the imagination which sometimes characterize this card. He too is a dreamer, but the images of the side of sense haunt him in his vision.
Card Seventeen
Ace of Pentacles from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Perfect contentment, felicity, ecstasy; also speedy intelligence; gold.
Papus's Divinatory Meanings
Commencement of good fortune. Inheritance. Gifts. Economy.
Card Description
A hand--issuing, as usual, from a cloud--holds up a pentacle.
Card Eighteen
Seven of Wands from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
It is a card of valour, for, on the surface, six are attacking one, who has, however, the vantage position. On the intellectual plane, it signifies discussion, wordy strife; in business--negotiations, war of trade, barter, competition. It is further a card of success, for the combatant is on the top and his enemies may be unable to reach him.
Papus's Divinatory Meanings
Certain success.
Card Description
A young man on a craggy eminence brandishing a staff; six other staves are raised towards him from below.
Card Nineteen
Four of Cups from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Novelty, presage, new instruction, new relations.
Papus's Divinatory Meanings (When Upright)
Serious obstacles from others.
Card Description
A young man is seated under a tree and contemplates three cups set on the grass before him; an arm issuing from a cloud offers him another cup. His expression notwithstanding is one of discontent with his environment.
Card Twenty
Five of Cups from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
It is a card of loss, but something remains over; three have been taken, but two are left; it is a card of inheritance, patrimony, transmission, but not corresponding to expectations; with some interpreters it is a card of marriage, but not without bitterness or frustration.
Papus's Divinatory Meanings
Obstacles overcome.
Card Description
A dark, cloaked figure, looking sideways at three prone cups two others stand upright behind him; a bridge is in the background, leading to a small keep or holding.
Card Twenty One
Strength from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Power, energy, action, courage, magnanimity; also complete success and honours.
Papus's Divinatory Meanings
Justice.
Card Description
A woman, over whose head there broods the same symbol of life which we have seen in the card of the Magician, is closing the jaws of a lion. The only point in which this design differs from the conventional presentations is that her beneficent fortitude has already subdued the lion, which is being led by a chain of flowers. For reasons which satisfy myself, this card has been interchanged with that of justice, which is usually numbered eight. As the variation carries nothing with it which will signify to the reader, there is no cause for explanation. Fortitude, in one of its most exalted aspects, is connected with the Divine Mystery of Union; the virtue, of course, operates in all planes, and hence draws on all in its symbolism. It connects also with innocentia inviolata, and with the strength which resides in contemplation. These higher meanings are, however, matters of inference, and I do not suggest that they are transparent on the surface of the card. They are intimated in a concealed manner by the chain of flowers, which signifies, among many other things, the sweet yoke and the light burden of Divine Law, when it has been taken into the heart of hearts. The card has nothing to do with self-confidence in the ordinary sense, though this has been suggested--but it concerns the confidence of those whose strength is God, who have found their refuge in Him. There is one aspect in which the lion signifies the passions, and she who is called Strength is the higher nature in its liberation. It has walked upon the asp and the basilisk and has trodden down the lion and the dragon.
