Hello and welcome to My Tiny Tarot Practice. I'm Amelia Hruby and this podcast is My Tiny Tarot

Practice where I explore the tarot card by card starting with the Minor Arcana. Today's card is

the Two of Cups. This card is often called the Marriage card. It's often considered a lesser

version of The Lovers, which is a card in the Major Arcana. And in researching it and meditating

on it for this episode, I saw common themes, like Rachel Pollack outlines in 78 Degrees of Wisdom,

that this is a card of the pledging of friendship or the beginning of a love affair or partnership.

And when we look at the card in the Rider-Waite-Smith version of the tarot, we can likely see where

that interpretation comes from. This card features two individuals who are each holding

a cup in their hands and looking toward each other. Now, I think it's interesting that

the figure on the left is seemingly holding the cup in both hands. The figure on the right

is holding the cup in one hand and reaching out toward the other's cup with their other hand.

In many readings I did about this card, they talk about how the two figures are looking at

each other, but I've often thought that perhaps the figure on the left is looking straight at,

the other person, looking them in the eye, but the figure on the right is looking down at the cup,

looking at where their hands meet. And in my mind, that's always symbolized a way of one

person looking right at the other and the other person looking at their relationship.

And I think this can often be how relationships are nurtured. It's both seeing each other

and tending to the relationship as its own entity.

Also featured on this card in the Rider Waite Smith deck is a caduceus, a winged lion over a

pair of intersecting snakes. This is a symbol of healing and wisdom, often a medical symbol,

and shows the healing power that a relationship like this can bring.

I think of the Two of Cups as the card of reciprocal relationship. That can be a romantic

relationship, it can be a friendship, it can be a creative collaboration, it can be a business

partnership, but in this card we have two meeting as one. Remaining themselves but looking openly

and honestly toward their union and the healing power, the healing waters it may bring.

I did, in fact, select this card as one of the cards of my own marriage ritual. It was shared

at my wedding as a symbol of the type of partnership that I hoped my marriage would

be and become. Because to me, the lovers has always been a card of love and passion as mediated

by the divine. And there's something about the Two of Cups that has always felt like love and

partnership mediated by a depth of feeling and by a practical material grounding. Because in the Two

of Cups, these two figures aren't standing in water, they're standing on the earth. They're

they're holding cups of water.

And I think of that as a way of sharing and offering our emotions to each other.

Less so swimming in the sea of emotions together, or beholding and being overwhelmed by a divine entity,

amidst our love, and more about simply being together and offering our hearts to each other.

And that's what I want in my marriage and my friendships and my collaborations and my partnerships.

The two of cups represents the healing that that gift of offering and receiving can bring. Thank you for listening to this episode

of my tiny tarot practice. I hope that it supports you in inviting or recognizing reciprocal

relationships in your life. If you'd like to explore this card further or to reference any

of the resources that I mentioned in this episode, you can head to the show notes to find my bookshop

link. There, I've collected a wonderful list of tarot resources that includes books, decks,

calendars, puzzles, all sorts of things that will help you deepen your tarot practice. If you make

a purchase through that link, I'll receive a small affiliate payment that helps me keep

this podcast going. Thank you again for listening and supporting the show.