The Nine of Cups represents the sphere of energy on the creative level of human expression. Nine of Cups upright: economy. Nine of Cups reversed: prodigality.
The respective power of consciousness is creative energy or esprit. Esprit is a French term that denotes creative prowess, spiritedness, and expressiveness.
Mind the difference between motivation and creative energy. Motivation gets us started, creative energy keeps us going.
Creative energy is scarce. Creators, artists, and inventors know this too well, hence, they are economical with their creative mojo.
Since this energy is precious, Tarotists consider the Nine of Cups an auspicious card and offer meanings like wish fulfillment, complete realization of desires, material success, and business success.
These meanings pertain to fortune telling since they describe experiences in the external world and the corresponding emotional reactions. Also, this card belongs to the creative level of human expression, not the bodily level. Having said that, the Nine of Cups promises wish fulfillment because it indicates that the querent has sufficient energy to succeed in creative pursuits.
You may have heard that the Nine of Cups signifies physical wellness. This is off, too, since this card does not belong to the bodily level. The Nine of Cups signifies soul wellness, which results from the cultivation of feelings and the pursuit of one’s heart’s desire.
An auspicious Nine of Cups calls for being economical with one’s creative energy, being grateful for its availability, and even holding it in high esteem.
An inauspicious Nine of Cups may indicate that the querent is wasting her creative energy, that she is procrastinating because she lacks this energy, or that she has opportunities for wish fulfillment, but is too lazy to follow up.
NINE of Cups Symbolism
The nine cups in the picture form almost a tree of life. Only the last sphere (materialization) is missing.
In numerology, the number nine signifies completion.
Traditionally, the name of the ninth sphere is foundation. With that is meant the energetic foundation of the last, physical sphere on the Tree of Life. While the ninth sphere completes the activities of a Tree, the 10th sphere produces the result of such a completion.
The Five Psychological Core Meanings of the Nine of Cups
We derive the psychological meanings of Tarot cards from their position on the Tree of Life. In the Enlightenment Tarot framework, the Nine of Cups represents Yesod of Netzach, i.e., energy on the creative level of human expression.
Every Tarot card represents a faculty or power of consciousness. We can use faculties of consciousness constructively and destructively, which produce either a fortunate or an adverse state of mind. Hence, every Tarot card has five core meanings.
These are the five core meanings of the Nine of Cups:
- Power of consciousness: Creative energy
- Constructive use: Economy, optimization
- Unconstructive use: Prodigality
- Auspicious state of mind: A sense of being empowered
- Inauspicious state of mind: Procrastination
Reflective Questions
If the Nine of Cups appears in your spread, it may be beneficial to ask yourself the following questions:
- What can I do to preserve my creative energy?
- What can I do to boost my creative energy?
- What habits or distractions are draining my creative energy, and how can I prevent that?
- What feelings do I need to cultivate to increase my soul wellness?
- What affirmations could I formulate to cultivate a sense of gratitude for my creative energy?
Nine of Cups Summary
The Nine of Cups reminds us of the need to cultivate creative energy to fuel our creative pursuit and soul wellness.
Where Do Tarot Card Meanings Actually Come From?
The meanings of Tarot cards come from various sources. The most common are:
- The position of the Tarot cards on the Tree of Life
- Astrological correspondences (signs, planets, & houses)
- The symbolism of Tarot cards
- Intuition
- Meanings that pertain to fortune-telling
Most of the Tarot card meanings you can google are astrological correspondences and go back to the Golden Dawn and Arthur Edward Waite. Astrological meanings dominate at present because Astrology is a divination tool and favors fortune-telling. But these meanings are unsuitable for (psychological) Tarot readings.
If you are interested in an overview of the astrological correspondences, you can download a high-resolution chart by subscribing to the Enlightenment Tarot.
Tarot card meanings are a bit of a mess since the meanings that pertain to their position on the Tree of Life mingle with astrological correspondences, symbolic interpretations, and fortune-telling connotations. That’s tedious to memorize. Further, tarotists’ opinions, knowledge, and linguistic backgrounds shaped some of these interpretations. Last but not least, many meanings are fuzzy, contradictory, and overlap. If you want to understand why they overlap, read the article How to Deal With the Overlapping Meanings of Tarot cards.
The meanings of the Enlightenment Tarot are based on an objective and holistic framework: the Tree of Life and the four levels of human expression. The resulting meanings are transparent and logical, and hence, easier to memorize.
What do Various Tarotists Say about the Meaning of the Nine of Cups
Let’s explore what different tarotists wrote about the Nine of Cups.
Tarotists emphasize the astrological significances of Tarot cards, since these lend themselves to fortune-telling. The Nine of Cups relates to the second decanate of Pisces, ruled by Jupiter and Neptune, which is also sub-ruled by Cancer and the Moon.
Jupiter has a benevolent influence. Neptune promotes psychism and a sense of connectedness with the world. Cancer adds a maternal, nurturing touch to the mix, and the moon eases access to subconsciousness and (forgotten) memories.
The basic Piscean characteristics are occult, benevolent, and sacrificing. The second decanate adds the following vibes to the mix: pious, introverted, and mediumistic.
Pisces rules the 12th house of subconsciousness, aka the house of privacy. The 12th house governs everything that happens in our subconsciousness like memories, wishes, dreams, hopes, fears, drives, needs, and addictions. Since Pisces is the last of the twelve zodiacs, this house also governs endings and conclusions. It is also the house of the things people devote themselves to. Some call this house the house of undoing/ruin. This includes imprisonment — actual incarceration or mental imprisonment by fears, drives, and addictions.
What Paul Foster Case Said About the Meanings of the Nine of Cups
For the Nine of Cups, Paul Foster Case offered the keyword desire fulfilled, and makes the following auspicious interpretations: material success, complete realization of desires, almost perfect pleasure and happiness, wishes fulfilled, physical well-being.
This doesn’t hit the mark. First, the sphere of desires and success is the seventh sphere, not the ninth. Second, we are on the creative-feely level of human expression (cups). Material success and the complete realization of desires takes place on the bodily level (pentacles).
However, the corresponding decanate signifies a benevolent Jupiterean and a nurturing Cancerean influence, which promotes success. But these influence promises fulfillment and don’t signify fulfillment itself, which comes much later.
Happiness, however, is a good fit, since it is a feeling that promotes soul wellness. But pleasure is off since it is an emotion, which we experience on the bodily level. The same is true for physical well-being.
Paul’s inauspicious interpretations are vanity, conceit, egoism, foolish generosity, ostentation, and expenditure. He added that the person to whom the card applies is too easily lead and spoilt by prosperity.
It is also unclear how he arrived at these meanings. One could make the point that creative energy produces a sense of abundance, which may lead to vanity. In a sense, the terms foolish generosity, ostentation, and expenditure indicate a prodigal use of creative energy. Also, an inauspicious Neptune influence can make a person fallible to illusions and deception.
What Arthur Edward Waite Said About the Meanings of the NINE of Cups
Arthur Edward Waite proposed that this card signifies concord, contentment, physical bien-etre, victory, success, advantage, and satisfaction for the querent or person for whom the consultation is made.
Here, we can also observe a mix up of the faculties of the seventh (success) and ninth (energy) sphere on the Tree of Life, as well as a confusion of the creative-feely and physical level (physical bien-etre and satisfaction)
The notion of advantage is a good fit, since creative energy is indeed an advantage.
To this, Arthur adds the meanings of truth, loyalty, liberty, but that the readings vary and may include mistakes, imperfections, etc. How he arrived at these meanings is up for debate. The notion of truth may go back to psychism and access to one’s subconsciousness (Pisces), which may lead to finding the truth about oneself. Loyalty is a maternal trait (Cancer).
Arthur also believed this card is a good augury for military men and prophesies good business. This pertains to fortune telling, so, no comment.
What Etteilla Said About the Meaning of the Nine of Cups
Etteilla, a French occultist and the first known professional tarotist, offers the meanings of success, in particular, business success.
Probably, he derived this meaning by considering the benevolent Jupiterean influence and the nurturing Canceran influence of the respective Pisces decanate.
What Papus Said About the Meaning of the Nine of Cups
Papus, another French occultist and the founder of the Martinist Order, suggests that this card foretells the conception of children.
This pertains to fortune telling, hence, no comment. However, there is a grain of truth here, because of the maternal influence of Cancer that sub-rules the second decanate of Cancer.
What Gregor Mather Said About the Meaning of the NINE of Cups
Gregor Mather, the founder of the Golden Dawn, suggested that an auspicious Nine of Cups signifies victory, advantage, success, triumph, and difficulties surmounted.
This goes back to the Jupiterean and Canceran influences, however, these can only promise success and doesn’t denote it.
An inauspicious Nine of Cups shall signify faults, errors, mistakes, and imperfections. How Gregor arrived at these meanings is unclear. Maybe because these things denote the opposite of success. But, again, the sphere of success is the seventh sphere, not the ninth.
What Mme. Le Marchand Said About the Meaning of the Nine of Cups
Mme. Le Marchand, a 19th century celebrated Parisian fortune teller, divined the Nine of Cups as follows: a beautiful wedding gifts, a rich dowry, golden ornaments, a necklace, a diamond right, or a gold watch.
These pertain to fortune telling, so, no comment. Further, mentioned things represent material wealth and don’t fit to the creative-feely level of human expression.
The Psychological Framework of the Enlightenment Tarot
Every Tarot card represents a faculty of consciousness. We can use a faculty of consciousness constructively and destructively. This produces favorable and adverse experiences.
We can express faculties of consciousness on four levels:
- The spiritual level (wands/fire/intention)
- The creative-feely level (cups/water/imagination)
- The intellectual level (swords/air/intelligence)
- The bodily level (pentacles/earth/bodily action)
The four tools on the magician’s table symbolize these four levels:
- The wand (spiritual)
- The cup (creative-feely)
- The sword (intellectual)
- The pentagram (bodily)
These tools correspond to the four so-called elements: fire, water, air, and earth.
For this reason, the Enlightenment Tarot wands are made of fire, the cups consist of water, and the pents are composed of earth. Unfortunately, it’s impossible to illustrate something made of air, since air is invisible. For that reason, all swords are made of crystal to show at least transparency.
The Enlightenment Tarot derives its meaning from the Tree of Life and the four levels of human expression. This is an objective, holistic framework that reveals the psychological imports of Tarot cards and their faculties of consciousness. Read more about this framework in the article The Psychological Framework of the Enlightenment Tarot.
The Enlightenment Tarot project attempts to rediscover the original meanings of the Tarot cards that pertain to their position on the Tree of Life. These meanings are simple, clear, and easy to memorize.
*This framework is compatible with Paul Foster Case’s qabalistic system.
Do you want to Learn more About The Enlightenment Tarot?
If you want to delve deep into the psychological meanings of Tarot cards, read the book Tarot of Life.
If you are curious about how the Enlightenment Tarot came about, read this article.
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If you are looking for a psychological Tarot deck, you have come to the right place. The Enlightenment Tarot derives the cards’ meanings from a holistic and transparent framework that is easy to learn and memorize. All major and minor arcana carry psychological titles, and the court cards display psychological profiles. Have a look at the Enlightenment Tarot deck here.
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