Six of Cups -- Paying Love Forward

I recently pulled the Six of Cups from my Tarot of the Masters deck and meditated on it for a while.  Part of my consideration about a card I pull for a “daily card” is to wonder why this card?  For each Tarot card, there are other cards that are similar, so why this particular one?  An obvious analog of the Six of Cups is the Two of Cups, so I made a mental comparison of those two cards.  As I did so, I realized that while the Six of Cups and the Two of Cups have a similar feel to them – that being a sense of sharing on a relationship / emotional level – there are some important differences too.

First of all, the emotional sharing in the Six is at a more “innocent” level.  It’s often associated with childhood and nostalgia, and so I see it somewhat like being our inner child sharing a loving connection with someone else’s inner child.  It’s a heartfelt sharing with another person through simple things like playing games together, talking for hours on the phone, or doing nothing more than just hanging out together.  It may apply to any sort of relationship — romantic, familial, or friendly — or even just a casual acquaintance we may make while at work, at a party, or on vacation.

I also find that this card is about more than our actual relationships with other people.  It is also about the emotional connections that we experience with everyone in our life, even people who are only passing through.  The number SIX signifies reciprocity, which typically means something done mutually or in return for something else, such as “tit for tat” or “give and take.”  However, I also see it in a wider sense as both giving back to the world and as “paying it forward.”  But instead of a material payment, which the Six of Pentacles might indicate, paying it forward with the Six of Cups involves paying love forward.  It’s things like giving a warm smile to a beggar on the street, speaking kindly to a harried and grumpy cashier, or listening sympathetically to a tale of woe from a stranger sitting next to you on an airplane.

So the next time you pull the Six of Cups for your daily card, make a point to pay love forward for the rest of the day, because love is the one gift you can give and then have more of it, not less.

Addendum:  In a subsequent blog post I further examine the Six of Cups card. See: http://jamesricklef.wordpress.com/2010/06/22/six-of-cups-ii/

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