August 28-30, 2014: Prince of Cups

Al-Shariyf

THE PRINCE OF THE CHARIOT OF THE WATERS
The Prince of Cups – Prince & Emperor of Nymphs or Undines.
AIR of WATER

Meditation pattern: Place 4 of Swords, 5 of Cups, and 6 of Cups side-by-side, with the Prince of Cups above them. Below the two Cups, place Atu XIII, Death.

Traditional Description: A winged, princely figure with winged crown, seated in a chariot drawn by an eagle. On the chariot wheel is the symbol of a scorpion. The eagle is borne as a crest on his crown, cuirass, and buskins. General attire like Prince of Wands. Beneath his chariot is the calm and stagnant water of a lake. His armor resembles feathers more than scales. He holds in one hand a lotus, and in the other a cup, charged with the sigil of his scale (Vav). A serpent issues from the cup, and has its head tending down toward the waters of the lake.

VAV of HEH (AIR of WATER). The Son of the Mother, or Reason as the medium of expressing the depths of the soul. Although he is thus philosopher and, in a lesser sense, artist, his essential quality is dynamic passion. The airy part of Water is its currents – its mobility, its elasticity, and especially its flowing, rhythmic, wave-like behavior that mirrors the currents of life energy. As Vav of Briah, he is the form that self-conscious reason takes in Briah. He is thus a Hero in the campaign of the soul’s exploration and conquest, armed especially with self-reflective and
self-knowing attributions: self-consciousness serving as a bridge between intuition and reason, a “revealer of the Mysteries” by the active exploration and experience of the life forces. He rules from 20°Libra to 20° Scorpio. His chief astrological correspondence is to the masculine, positive, aggressive, passionate Mars and Sun decanates of Scorpio. He is, thus, in close affinity with the surging tides of the life force. These two decanates are called PLEASURE, and LOSS OF PLEASURE (or DISAPPOINTMENT): Like all Princes, he rides the pendulum swing between extremes.

In him is no room for mildness. He is in the passionate embrace either of pleasure or its loss – passion or pathos – without middle ground or moderation. As such, he is the chief agency steering the solar-phallic powers of life and death that obtain their balance in Scorpio. It is his inner passionate tension that empowers his conscious access to the World of Briah. (He does not, however partake of the Venus-ruled third decanate, called “Debauch.” There is no such wallowing or passivity in him. His is a virile, sustained passion.)

His shadow is the last decanate of Libra, ruled by Jupiter and called TRUCE, or REST FROM STRIFE. Such is not his way! Such “rest,” or easing up the internal pressure, would compromise his necessary sustained tension. It is only characteristic of him in his total exhaustion.

In divination, he is masculine, virile, aggressive, torrential, and artistic, characterized by dynamic passions; a fierce nature with calm exterior. Self-reflective, self-knowing. Embraces extremes of passion and pathos, with little middle ground. Powerful for good or evil; but more attracted by the evil if it is allied with apparent Power or Wisdom. If ill-dignified, he is intensely evil and merciless.

http://infinitynow.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/court-prince-of-cups.jpg

Danica

He is that which forms images (Imagination) and thus creates stable molds for manifestation. Power of emotions, i.e. type of emotions & the overall quality of affective nature, is what directs these images or molds; this is depicted by 5-of-Cups and 6-of-Cups.
His shadow side, 4-of-Swords: mind satisfied with current conditions; keeping the status quo. This inevitably leads to decay (putrefaction) and through it, to transformation.

Fruit ripens, then reaches the overripe-phase, and then it goes into decay; decay is the process of giving food to other life-forms from own decomposing body.
As Vau of Water and Water in Yetzirah, he is Love from the perspective of a particular Ego-consciousness.
He rides an eagle and looks at the cup in his hand, inside which a snake rises… essentially, he is personified ATU XII principle: in its highest, this is awareness continually in the state of Rapture, coming from surrender of own limited self to the limitlessness and vastness of Divine; the Cherub-bird leads him as much as he leads it, it’s a mutual relationship.
Nature of your thoughts decides the quality of the Cup of your Rapture: Poison or Nectar of Life!

This Prince rules the inner transformative processes; he is a sort of Navigator through individual’s various mental-emotional states, leading toward the Purification which makes the soul more open, more susceptible for the direct influence of H.G.A.
Waters over which he flies are turbulent, but his eyes rest peacefully on the snake in the Cup…
He is the epitome of the power of desire and the vital principle of Imagination.