Two of Cups

Identity

Symbols

• Two Raised CupsA gesture of equals, not of hierarchy — the vow holds only when both cups reach the same line.+

  Waite's word is 'pledging': the cups are held out toward each other, not clinked, and the gap between their rims sits right under the caduceus. The Golden Dawn calls the card 'Lord of Love' — Venus in Cancer's first decan.

• Caduceus with Winged LionHermes's herald's staff, the sign of a truce — two serpents coiled toward one another, a reminder that a promise, kept, holds two sides at peace.+

  Waite calls it a variant of a sign 'found in a few old examples of this card' and declines to explain it. The caduceus is a herald's rod: Hyginus tells how Mercury set it between two fighting snakes, making it an emblem of peace.

• The Facing PairThe two do not merge into one; they stand, for the first time, clearly across from each other.+

  Waite names them only 'a youth and maiden'. His list for the card ends, unusually, on 'that desire which is not in Nature, but by which Nature is sanctified' — the pair as something more than attraction.

• Distant Hill and Quiet HouseA vow needs a quiet backdrop — only against stillness does the promise find a place to land.+

  Waite's text never mentions the background; it exists only in Smith's drawing. The house is small and far back in open green country — the one dwelling in view, kept at a distance from the foreground where the pledge is made.

Story

A narrow gap of air between two cup-rims is the centre of this picture. The youth and the maiden face each other, each arm held out so far and no further. From just above that gap the caduceus rises, its great wings spread and a lion's head set between them — a sign hanging over the pair that neither of them looks up at. Far behind, open green country and a house on a hill keep their distance. Nothing moves; the picture holds the pledge at arm's length, the rims still apart.

Correspondences

Elemental Dignity

Shadow

Related Cards

The Lovers

Ace of Cups

Three of Cups