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give and take A lesson regarding the power of emotional offerings is given with the Six of Cups. The focus with this card is largely on the balance of give and take in the connections we have with others. Sharing and exchanging energy and emotion is the key to a healthy relationship with someone. If there is a lack of balance, resentment and unhappiness will set in and feelings will go unexpressed a lot of the time as two people grapple with each other for control over the energy flow. When this card urges a querent to give of themselves, it asks that this is done non-judgementally and completely. When the card addresses an offering one is accepting from someone else, it urges a querent to decide if it's healthy and genuine. The card is infused with messages of teaching and acknowledging what others have to teach. What are the examples of love and compassion at work in your life? What do you need learn in order to have better relationships? Why is a certain relationship constantly sailing into choppy water and what can be done to steer it onto a smoother course? What do you have to teach others? What has your path taught you about your own strengths and abilities in love?

In the suit of Cups, water represents the ebb and flow of human emotion. When we think about the different forms water can take -steam, ice, still lake, ocean tide and so on- we come to relate these to the way that emotions can alter and take shape. Sometimes these changes are unexpected, inconvenient and difficult to deal with. Sometimes the way emotion comes into our lives seems perfect -entirely too good to be true- and can subsequently cause us to clam up or panic, unable to trust what is being given. The Six of Cups is telling us to appreciate what is given with good intention and to give back accordingly, as long as we are emotionally able to do so and don't feel that the need to do so is an imposition or a burden. It asks us to consider what might be missing, what's being expected that's not materialising, which relationships are ultimately taking a massive toll without giving us any reason to expect that they will change or get better.

This meaning may seem abstract to the point of being useless, but I often find that when the Six appears in a reading it does so at the perfect time for these considerations to come to the surface and do their work. When a relationship is a staple in a querent's day to day life, it is often weeks, months or years before a reassessment of that relationship becomes a priority. Sometimes a problem is glaringly obvious and yet is not recognised because it has become an accepted thread in the fabric of life. The Six of Cups encourages heightened awareness, not only of what's great about our connections, but also of what's not working as well as it could.