Cups

“The chalice that I hold is the symbol of Water. Know and remember, that this is the element of Love, of growth, of the fruitfulness of the Great Mother…”

Depicted in the Tarot by the suit of Cups: the Chalice (or Goblet)  is an important Magickal Tool. The Cup is the elemental tool which represents the element of Water – and its properties of emotion, compassion, empathy, fears and intuition.

According to Paul Huson in his book ‘Mastering Witchcraft’, “The… cup symbolises the receptive passivity of the great womb of nature, out of which all things are born and to which all return. It is seen as female in nature and is analagous with night, darkness, space, and, of course, the all-encompassing sea. Water is the traditional element of the Wise related to it.”

In their book ‘A Witches Bible’, Janet and Stewart Farrar write that the cup is presented to new initiates as “…the vessel of the Goddess, the Cauldron of Cerridwen, the Holy Grail of Immortality.”

It is interesting to note that the Cup is neither mentioned nor presented to new initiates along with the other magickal tools in Gerald Gardner’s published first- and second-degree initiation rituals.

The Chalice is representative of the Feminine Divine and stands in place of the Goddess during the ‘Cakes and Wine Ceremony’ – a metaphor for the Great Rite – a symbolic unification of the male and female in which an athame is lowered into the chalice, blessing the contents.

Often containing wine or mead, it may be shared around a coven passed woman-to-man and man-to-woman, each time with a kiss.

Mildred & Myrtle have new chalices available soon…