MAPS: Chapter XVII
Princess of Cups
I wonder if you are curious why it has taken so long for the Princess of Cups, Alicia, to show up. Of course she existed in the corners of this myth that I hadn’t bothered to peer into yet, when Cate from my writing group inquired of her absence. I should have known when Billy dreamed of his girl back home that I needed to know who and what she was. Cate’s question woke me up, but it took some time. I kept forgetting about her.
This book is a dream that I dream awake. In a sense it is the whole of my life as seen with one foot on each side of the doorsill. So if the Princess of Cups was reticent in showing up in the dream, then I can look to my life and ask, what is missing?
The nature of the Princess of Cups is living life out of one’s purest love nature—which, in goddess vernacular, is the domain of Aphrodite and Venus (water goddesses of great beauty, associated with love). Now I am not an expert in astrology, but I have had my chart done and apparently Venus was not visible in the sky when I was born, so it makes sense that my purest love nature is hard for me to see and be. In Jungian terms, this is an aspect of my shadow self—a part of me that has been repressed or denied.
Now this book is about the four tarot princesses, yet in the end, Alicia is just getting the message of who she might be. (And what is an end if not also a beginning?)
That doesn’t mean that the Princess of Water hasn’t been here the whole time.
In Crowley’s words . . . “she lives in the perpetual dream of rapture.”
She is the ocean of the divine realm, the Secondary World.
But because she is pure water sign—rapture, dance, as above so below, and the source of story itself—the words of the story need to come from someplace else.
That is where ATU XVII | Star comes in. In the Wheel of Wholeness, the Star comes right after ATU XVI | Tower. So the next step in our restoration of wholeness is to let go of the old stories, structures, and limiting beliefs (Tower) that no longer serve and have our Star Sight RESTORED. And with it, riding through the Goddess of ReStorying (The Star is associated with Aquarius—an air sign of the realm of the myth mind), come the words (images, colors, sounds) to help us tell the story that is on the tip of our brains but can get hopelessly tangled on our tongues.
The simplest attempt I have seen is the phrase: We Are Stardust.
But what does that MEAN?
Ahhhh, that is the old Athena talking. Old Athena (Goddess of Justice, Judgment, Adjustment and WAR) prompts us to constantly judge and discern the meaning of things instead of embracing the experience of life where star meets skin. Thank goddessness she has a new name. She didn’t get the throne she thought she deserved, yet the power of ReStorying is (in my most humble opinion) even better!
A’Thena (The A’ is for the abbreviation of AraAthena) might offer this ReStory prompt instead:
What if you are the mirror on earth of one of the new stars in the constellation Ara . . . what might be possible now that wasn’t before?
If you haven’t discovered them yet, the Quest(ions) offered along with each Chapter of The Ash Girl are aimed at helping you to ReStory your Self.
What’s next?
The Ash Girl ends with Alicia, The Princess of Cups diving into the Pacific after a White Raven who has stolen the key topped with the three interlaced rings. Imagine with me what A’ Thena, now ATU XVII | STAR, and Alicia, Princess of Cups, might have to teach one another. About being both human and goddess.
Place yourself on the READER MAP . . .
WHAT’S NEXT?
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