AUTHOR’S NOTE: Sometimes we can tie ourselves up in knots when trying too diligently to impose esoteric symbolism on the tarot cards. I recently came across an opinion that the 10 of Cups – which is associated with Mars in Pisces in the Golden Dawn’s system of “Chaldean” astrological correspondences – must refer to the “shattering of a ‘happily-ever-after’ dream” because it can be incidentally linked to the destructive Tower and the befogged Moon, which is assigned to Pisces, the suit of emotional felicity. I think it is a bit more nuanced than that.

In the Thoth deck, this card is titled “Satiety,” which is an interesting concept. I usually interpret it as “too much of a good thing.” The formal definition is “being gratified or fed beyond capacity.” It reminds me of the old Alka-Seltzer commercial where a man wakes up with an upset stomach and groans “I can’t believe I ate the whole thing!” to which his wife replies archly, “You did, George.” I suppose if we think of it as an expression of the Tower and the Moon in macabre humorous terms, it would symbolize “Mr. Creosote” in Monty Python’s Meaning of Life, who explodes and hurls his innards all over the restaurant after eating one last “wafer-thin bon-bon.”

Another cultural reference. one that might be attached to the 10 of Cups reversed, would be “Alex” (Malcolm McDowell) in A Clockwork Orange, who is force-fed videos of extreme violence accompanied by a recording of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony (previously two of his favorite pastimes) He was strapped down after having been psychologically conditioned via torture to become profoundly ill when experiencing either one. (It was a misguided form of social engineering to show that even the worst miscreants could be successfully rehabilitated.) Knowing Crowley, there would have to be some perverse angle to this card given the fact that the number Ten in the Minor Arcana refers to the enfeeblement of the elemental energy. There is also the sense of trying to jam ten pounds of “stuff” into a five-pound bag; something’s gotta give.

On the face of it, there is no such perversity in the Waite-Smith image, which appears to be all “sweetness-and-light.” I often describe it as the “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” card because it seems to depict the Beatles’ “Desmond and Molly Jones in their home-sweet-home, with a couple of kids running in the yard.” I think Pamela Colman Smith deliberately ignored the implications of the number Ten in Qabalistic theory when coming up with her prosaic “canned narrative vignette” for the 10 of Cups; either that or it’s another devious “red herring,” but I’m not sure she was subtle enough for that. I submit that it has misled generations of novice tarot readers into believing that this is an entirely benevolent card.

In considering the operation of Mars in the suit of Water, I’m reminded of the conundrum of trying to “push a string.” Mars is forceful and direct, while water tends to deform when subjected to coercion. It flows around and envelopes the assault, thereby defeating it in a “passive/aggressive” manner. Think of trying to squeeze a handful of liquid, which runs right through your fingers. My personal opinion is that, in the Tree of Life model, all of the Tens are postscripts to the “fulfillment of the element” in the Nines of their suit; the energy is exhausted so there is no way it can be entirely beneficial except in a “cessation-of-effort” fashion. (I once wrote a detailed essay on this dissipation of vigor that I’ve linked below). The 10 of Cups suggests emotional enervation. The lyrics of Bob Dylan’s weary lament Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues are a good example of what I’m talking about: two verses in particular stand out:

“And your gravity fails/And negativity don’t pull you through”

“I cannot move/My fingers are all in a knot
I don’t have the strength/To get up and take another shot”

The Tens: A “Holding Pattern”