Ace of Cups

You might expect the fundamental card of the entire suit of Cups to practically drown you with opulence -- that's what card illustrations typically show us. However, since this suit overwhelms us from within, via emotions and the less apparent realms of the psyche, I wanted to demonstrate that less is more. You don't need an enormous solid-gold chalice to fill your heart with wonder and love; these qualities are so innate that you can invoke them with a single well-placed dewdrop. Ecstaticist has an entire set of these intimate landscapes for you to wander through, showing the multiplicity of worlds reflected in mere drops of water. Another collection pairs similar shots with a few apt lines of poetry. If "Man's life is like a drop of dew on a leaf," as Socrates says, then we ought at least absorb the beauty of that sentiment as well as its warning.

The Ace of Cups indicates a spring of emotion or unexplainable urges welling up within you -- who knows what form it will take when it reaches the surface? Or to follow the dew metaphor, it is condensing out of the very air around you, covering you like a second skin. The best part about this suit is you don't have to do anything to benefit from its blessings. You simply follow along, like Alice following the white rabbit: shrinking, growing, weeping great salty tears that drown the world, or drinking from a cupped rose petal. You can't help but emerge transformed -- and if you make an effort to remain attuned to the needs and wishes of your innermost self, you may be surprised and delighted to find them fulfilled before your very eyes. [Via]