Ten of Cups

Ten cups in the pattern of the Tree of Life overflow so completely that the arrangement is unstable; the water is spilling everywhere.

Malkuth, Kingdom, in Briah, the world of creation. The Kingdom, the tenth Sephirah, the world as it actually is: matter, the body, the finished thing that has fallen away from its source and yet contains it. Malkuth is the Daughter, the final Heh. The Tens are Malkuth in the four worlds and show the element carried to its end, for good or ill; the Princesses belong here.

Malkuth in the world of Water: the element carried to its end and fixed, where fullness becomes surfeit. Mars in the last decan of Pisces disturbs the completed waters.

Mars in the third decan of Pisces (20°–30°, about Mar 11–20). Mars is force, war, energy, the breaking of forms so that they can move. On the Tree it is Geburah; among the trumps it is the Tower. Mars also opens the sequence of the decans at the first degree of Aries.

Pisces is mutable Water: the two fish, the end of the zodiac, dissolution and the waters before the spring. Jupiter rules it traditionally (Neptune in modern practice) and Venus is exalted here. Its trump is the Moon. The trump of Pisces is The Moon.

This decan is ruled by the Queen of Wands, whose arc runs from 21° Pisces to 20° Aries. The two Shem angels of the decan are Haiaiel and Mumiah.

The crystallised Actual: the cycle complete, matter as it is known, the end that contains the next beginning. Malkuth, the Kingdom. The Tens carry each element to its extreme; Fortune is trump X.

Feeling at its limit; the value so fully possessed that it begins to cloy. The Cups are usually read as the feeling function in Jung's typology, an interpretive convention rather than a text of Jung's.

Rider-Waite calls the suit Cups (also Chalices). Its small cards carry scenes; the Thoth small cards carry the suit emblems arranged geometrically, with the keyword printed at the bottom and the colours of their Sephirah and decan. The Golden Dawn title (Lord of Perfected Success) is shared by both traditions.

Mars at its best gives courage, decisiveness, protective strength, passion, independence. At its worst: violence, impulsiveness, cruelty, rage, or, when repressed, passive aggression and burnt-out apathy.

Pisces (“I believe”) brings compassion, imagination, spiritual sensitivity, artistry, empathy, selflessness. Its shadow is escapism, victimhood, confusion, deception, addiction, lack of boundaries.

Together: Mars has no essential dignity or debility in Pisces. Dignity explains part of the title and the Sephirah explains the rest: a planet at home in its sign can still sit in a hard sphere, and a weak planet can be carried by a strong one.

The Sun crosses this decan around Mar 11–20, so it is the decan card of anyone born then; their court card is the Queen of Wands. Find a birthday.