The Princess of Cups is a dreamer... and in the Thoth deck we see her dancing her dreams into manifestation, thus revealing one of her more secret aspects. This card represents the earthy part of water... where dreams can become reality.

On the day that I wrote the commentary for working with this card, it came after the Nine of Cups, which you will remember, is the Wish Card... that seemed to me to make for a very auspicious and important set of circumstances. At that time, I had written up the details on 56 out of the 78 cards... the fact that the Wish Card was followed by this one concentrated my attention on her remarkable ability to make dreams come true.

The push and shove of daily life, the pain, the sadness and the suffering can all make us afraid to dream, to wish, to hope. And often we lose sight of the fact that, if we do not dream our dreams, we shall have no dreams come true.

In our darkest moments, if we can only, even for a single second, dream of golden shiny happy days... of contentment and a sense of safety in our lives... then we give the Princess of Cups something to dance into reality for us. It is a desperately hard thing to, just for a second, open our hearts to hope, sometimes. But it is essential, too.

But if we cease to dream, then our dreams cannot emerge, for they do not exist. If we relinquish hope, then hopeful things will not happen in our lives. If we surrender optimism, then we can guarantee we shall never ever have anything to be optimistic about.

So... in your darkest hour... lift up your eyes to the sky... search out a perfect flower... seek to touch something you love... and for that moment, let yourself hope and dream and wish - then the Princess will have something to work for on your behalf.

And when your life if full and happy and replete... on a day ruled by this card... PLEASE... spare a thought for those who suffer... and hope for fulfilment and contentment for all of those who seek it!