Four of Chalices
Chalices
How This Card Is Derived
Papus gives no separate description of this card. It is derived from his system: Chalices is He (ה), the passive, receptive principle, acting in Briah, the creative world; the number 4 is He final of the first series, and Yod of the second, realization — and the pivot that begins the next movement. The meaning below is that combination read out — the passive, receptive principle taken at its 4th term — not a quotation from him.
Upright
The pivot. Feeling has been realized, and in Papus's logic a realized feeling becomes a state rather than a movement — satiety, the condition of having enough and therefore of no longer reaching for anything. This is why the offered cup goes unnoticed: not sulking, saturated. It is a genuine realization, and being a pivot it is also the point from which the next sequence starts.
Reversed
The saturation broken — the offered cup finally seen, which is exactly how the second series gets going. Or the opposite: dissatisfaction cultivated on purpose, because wanting is an easier condition to inhabit than having.
Correspondences
- Suit
- Chalices — He (ה), Briah, the creative world
- Suit principle
- the passive, receptive principle
- Number
- 4 — He final of the first series, and Yod of the second
- Numeric role
- realization — and the pivot that begins the next movement
In a Spread
At the commencement, the matter begins from a settled emotional state nobody is questioning. In opposition, the querent's own sufficiency, quietly refusing something. At equilibrium the situation is stable and inert. As the result: a state reached — and Papus's fourth term always hands on, so read what follows it.