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This week’s card is the 2 of Cups. Read more about what this newsletter is about here.
Summer of 2020. You remember it.
Of the myriad woes choking our psyches, a particular one I found myself reporting was how the pandemic halted the performing arts.
At the San Francisco Symphony, they were tinkering with something new. Something awkward, even. And it resulted in an exchange that I consider a prime example of how 2 of Cups isn’t always about romance.
The new spin on a concert was this: selected orchestra musicians would put on solo recitals. They would be outdoors, somewhere on the premises of Davies Hall, like a terrace.
Here’s the kicker: They would be given to an audience of one, who’d be masked six feet away.
When I was pitched this, the setup felt so starkly intimate it was almost cringe. Intimidating, even, for both musician and listener. Like being naked with a stranger. I’m supposed to stare at you for a whole hour while you blow beautiful things into a shiny little tube? We may as well text each other our buttholes.
What I discovered was different.
Tim Higgins, the symphony’s principal trombone, told me that instead of feeling vulnerable, he felt connected. Possibly even more than before!
“I found it really rejuvenating,” he told me over the phone. “I felt much more optimistic about a lot of different aspects of what’s going on.” He’d actually chat with audience members about the pandemic, leading to bonding over this outsize experience we were collectively enduring.
He told me about this one time, at the end of a particularly soft phrase, a truck right beyond the terrace crashed by. Davies is downtown, after all, so this happened over and over. “It’s a little absurd, so I call attention to it, laugh about it,” Higgins said. But apparently, every single time, the audience member said a version of the same exact response: “I didn’t even notice.”
Tim Higgins performs a 1:1 Concert. Image courtesy of the San Francisco Symphony.
They were completely plugged in. Higgins sensed a deep, reverent trust on either end of the experience — that the performer would fully meet the listener where they were, and that the listener would hold with open hands the gift of their art, however imperfect the setup.
This is all very 2 of Cups.
A one-on-one emotional connection, with vulnerability, all ending in bonding and understanding of the other’s experience. The focused exchange. The present listening and attuning to the other. The fact this occurred through the arts (a cups correspondence) is especially harmonious.
2 of Cups signals emotional harmony, a partnership built on trust, and the love between two people. It doesn’t have to be romantic love, but as I mentioned earlier that’s often a keyword tarot readers assign to it immediately. (It’s sometimes seen as the “mini” version of The Lovers.) It certainly doesn’t have to be sexual, but depending on context it totally can be — one animal deck I have features two suspiciously amorous-looking dolphins (who definitely do the porpoise equivalent of texting each other their buttholes). A personal meaning I’ve assigned is a kink context, where giver and receiver are in a trusting mutual exchange of gifts, responsibilities, and power.
Of course I’m not gonna leave you hanging on those horny dolphins, babygirl! From The Animal Wisdom Tarot by author and animal communicator Dawn Brunke — this was my very first deck that I learned on over a decade ago. Background art by me (CRUHStudio.com). If you are looking at these going, “Cristina, there’s nothing horny about this,” I don’t want to hear about it.
Whether lovey-dovey, horny, kinky, delphic, or not, 2 of Cups is about meeting another being where they are and holding them in your full, generously soulful awareness. 2 of Cups is the energy of emotional reciprocity and nourishing through a shared connection and a mutual exchange. It’s attunement at its core.
Biddy Tarot spells it out nicely: “You are both focused on creating a relationship that is mutually beneficial, one that will create a win-win situation for both parties. You see ‘eye to eye’ and appreciate what each other can bring to the table.”
Of course, you can also turn this energy toward yourself. You don’t need another entity for 2 of Cups energy. But that’s for another issue.
Other non-romantic things that give 2 of Cups energy
Chicken Shop Date
Complementary colors across the color wheel
Mick Jagger and Keith Richards locked in a room writing a song together, with each riffing on the other’s ideas in a flowing exchange
Food and wine pairings: When there’s harmonious balance (and when both elements literally honor what the other brought to the table)
Check out my Pinterest board for all things 2 of Cups — Pinterest is one of my favorite ways to learn about and deepen my relationship with tarot
This exchange:
Traditional 2 of Cups correspondences
Venus in Cancer
June 21–July 1 (0°–9° Cancer)
Love, equilibrium, the Other, the “gaze”
What else says 2 of Cups to you? What says “attunement”? Let me know! I want to hear them.
Thanks for reading,
Cristina
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