The Three of Cups - Celebration

The Three of Cups - Celebration

Original Writing by Kathryn Ravenwood

From The Rider Waite Tarot

Quick - think of three things you have loved celebrating........  now, were your friends by your side? Yup, I thought so. We can count on our friends to join us for most any reason to have a good time. Life is rich and abundant and so much more fun when shared with our friends. I know that all of you who are reading this have friends - great friends - whom you love, cherish and that you lavish each other with love, acceptance, silliness, honesty, care and spontaneity. This is one of the most self-explanatory cards in the Tarot. No one has a problem understanding it. I chose this card for this week’s newsletter simply to honor all the friendships.

While the Tarot does show us a path of wisdom, the Fool’s Journey, we rarely experience this path in a linear manner. But when learning about the cards it is good to see what precedes and follows a card we want to understand better. Let’s look at the progression of the Cups. First the Ace brings us fresh love, joy, creative urges. Then the Two brings a couple together in love and joined partnership. Then the Three: this is where the creativity comes in. In some partnerships a child is conceived and new life is brought into the world as a child. This conception and birth are representative of the Empress - the Mother card which is Major Arcana 3 and rules all the threes of the Minors. 

But the children of the Empress are not restricted to human babies. Collaborations of partners create all kinds things from art to delicious desserts. Yes, we can do it alone but it just is more fun with someone else and we usually need some other input to help us figure out the details or just to keep us enthused. Cups are about emotions. The three friends in the card are emotionally connected, sharing love and a very special quality - Grace.

Grace is that abundant energy that is always flowing to us from Spirit. We do not have to earn it - just experience it. We connect with Grace alone, yes, in spiritual revelations. But it is the celebration of that Grace that helps it to expand throughout the world and touch people who are not able to feel or receive that blessing. Friends celebrating each other, celebrating life, celebrating in ritual or cooking, or out on adventures together spread Grace. Friends who show up in hard and sad times when all seems lost bring Grace with their gift to love and support no matter what. 

Our friends are humans, family, non-family, animals, and for some, the rarer forms of fairies, angels, or Spirit Guides. Whoever your friends are, continue to love them, celebrate with them, create with them, and receive the Grace of Spirit with them.

...Kathryn Ravenwood