Two cards in conversation

The Sun + Ten of Cups

People often bring two cards with a question about what will happen. Olivia reads a pair as a conversation instead: what each card brings, and what appears between them.

  • A Major and a Minor

Carved on both cards

  • The child with open arms · The dancing children

Five ways to read this pair

Try one lens at a time. Write a sentence for each before you read anyone else’s version.

  1. Story

    Read The Sun first, then Ten of Cups, as two scenes of one story. What changes between them?

  2. Contrast

    Where do The Sun and Ten of Cups pull in different directions, and what does each ask of you?

  3. One colours the other

    Let Ten of Cups describe the way of The Sun, as an adjective describes a noun. Then swap them.

  4. A shared symbol

    The same symbol is carved on both: “The child with open arms” and “The dancing children”. Follow it from one image to the other: what stays the same, what changes?

  5. Number, suit and element

    A Major and a Minor: the Major can name the theme, the Minor shows where it turns up in ordinary days.

One reader’s version

The Sun and the Ten of Cups share a child’s open-armed, uncomplicated joy. The Sun gathers it into one rider beneath a great gold disc; the Ten spreads it across a household under an arch of cups. Together they point to happiness that is simple, visible and shared.

Written for the page of Ten of Cups