“Oh, we’re half way there
Oh-oh, livin’ on a prayer”
– from Livin’ on a Prayer by Jon Bon Jovi

AUTHOR’S NOTE: Tarot readers and their clients are usually delighted when the 2 of Cups appears in a prediction about romantic matters. The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn titled this card “Lord of Love,” and it is bluntly named “Love” in the Thoth deck. But it is more about the potential for a blissful interlude than its realization. As Alexander Pope wrote: “Hope springs eternal in the human breast. Man never is, but always to be blest.” The language is archaic, but by “always to be” he apparently meant that the blessing is perpetually on hold, the inference being that it is not yet deserved. I wouldn’t read such negativity into the 2 of Cups, but it certainly expresses this state of incipient benediction.

I once wrote an essay on the subject that proposed the 9 of Cups as a more legitimate “love” card than the 2 of Cups because it conveys emotional fulfillment. The Nines represent the “completion” of their suit, while the Tens are more of a postscript, a fact that is borne out most explicitly in the Thoth deck where the 9 of Cups is designated “Happiness” and the 10 of Cups “Satiety” or excessive sentimentality. In the Waite-Smith deck, the man in the 9 of Cups appears to be thoroughly at ease and content with his status (the thought that comes to mind is “smug”); on the other hand, the 10 of Cups displays a more saccharine mood that may slide downhill toward ennui. Elsewhere in this blog you will find that, for obvious reasons, my “tarot euphemism” for one RWS image is the “fat, dumb and happy” card and for the other it is the “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” card.

In playing-card divination, the 9 of Hearts (the tarot’s 9 of Cups) is considered the “wish” card in that it stands for the “heart’s desire.” Some tarot readers import this assumption into their interpretation of the 9 of Cups, which is not entirely inappropriate. I tend to see it not merely as “wishful thinking” but rather as “anticipation writ large” when it comes up in a “love” spread. As the old Schlitz beer commercial had it, the 9 of Cups “goes for the gusto;” the 2 of Cups just tip-toes around the perimeter, hoping for an invitation.

The 9 of Cups has rolled back the sheets and plumped the pillows, ready for action, while the 2 of Cups is still standing on the doorstep, hat in hand. The Two can be more about “playing at love” (the old concept is “puppy-love”), and is not a promise of deep commitment. If true romance is in the offing, I believe the 9 of Cups would be its most telling harbinger in a “ready-for-love” sense; the 2 of Cups delivers its message from afar as a faint hint of possibility that can be “more smoke than fire.” We could say that the 9 of Cups is more than “half-way there” while the 2 of Cups is still “livin’ on a prayer.” Not a bad thing in itself, but the opportunity it describes can be overstated by sympathetic tarot readers. In my own practice I’ve swapped the two when it comes to love readings: the mature Nine is likely to make good on the vow while the adolescent Two is endlessly singing that old Dusty Springfield song, Wishin’ and Hopin.’