Nine of Cups

Nine cups arranged in a square of three by three overflow in ordered streams; the sea is full and the light is warm.

Yesod, Foundation, in Briah, the world of creation. Foundation, the sphere of the Moon: the astral, the image, the pattern on which the material world is built, and also stability, because Yesod gathers the forces above it into one channel. The Nines are Yesod in the four worlds and are the element at full strength before its final crystallisation.

Yesod in the world of Water: feeling gathered into one full channel, stable and complete. Jupiter in the second decan of Pisces is the great benefic in the sign it rules.

Jupiter in the second decan of Pisces (10°–20°, about Mar 1–10). Jupiter is expansion, generosity, luck, law and the king's mercy. On the Tree it is Chesed; among the trumps it is Fortune, the wheel that turns by its own law.

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 Knight of Cups, whose arc runs from 21° Aquarius to 20° Pisces. The two Shem angels of the decan are Rochel and Jabamiah.

Stability: the forces above gathered into one channel, the foundation, the image. Yesod. The Nines are the element at full strength; the Hermit is trump IX.

Feeling fulfilled and at rest; the value realised in the body. 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 Material Happiness) is shared by both traditions.

Jupiter at its best gives generosity, wisdom, faith, humour, mentorship, good fortune. At its worst: arrogance, dogmatism, self-righteousness, overpromising, gluttony, waste, the guru complex.

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

Together: Jupiter rules Pisces and is at home here. 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 1–10, so it is the decan card of anyone born then; their court card is the Knight of Cups. Find a birthday.