"An emotion has run its course and is no longer operative in your life.  This could mean that a relationship is ending completely or that a particular part of the relationships is ending.  The old pattern has become a habit that is no longer meaningful or satisfying.  Nothing can be done now to retain or reclaim the vigor of the original feelings.  You need to make some real or symbolic gesture that shows you've reached a point of closure or completion around this feeling or relationship.  You may, need to full experience your grief and mourn its passing." - Gail Fairfield

"His generosity is proverbial; his creative counseling shows the seeker the way to negotiate the confusion of the quest, for he is the guardian of the hidden mysteries." - Caitlin & John Matthews

Kings are associated with control, mastery, discipline and resolve.  Cups represent emotions, love, pleasures in life; matters pertaining to the unconscious, intuition and the inner planes, and the element of water.  The King of Cups is both a romantic, loving person who does not let his emotions lead him down the wrong path.  He has enough life experience to know that while he desires love and pleasure in life sometimes that can lead to unhealthy choices. 

This card was very appropriate today.  My mom came to visit and we had a few drinks.  Some things came up that I think she had to get off her chest.  Nothing specific, no great confessions.  But the reality is that I know she has a lot of things that bother her and that she regularly beats herself up about them.  I don't know what's true or not and I don't know what drove her to make the choices she made.  She chose to stay with my father although I have no idea why.  In fact I'm not even sure why she wanted to date him in the first place.  But one thing I do realize is that she was vulnerable and he sensed that. 

Then again he has his problems too.  As I get older I realize that it's rarely all one person's fault.  I think my father would have been a different person if he had married someone different.  And so would my mother.  They were just a bad fit for each other.  I'm sure they loved each other - at one point anyway.  But over time they seemed to reinforce each others worse tendencies.  I think they would have been happier and more successful in their lives if they had not stayed together.  Then again it's possible my mother would have ended up attracting another man like my father.

In some ways I think the best thing for my mother would either be full confession or seeking some counseling.  I know that one of the steps in a 12 step program is the concept of restitution - making it right with the people we've hurt through out behavior.  But this is probably much easier said than done.  Admitting what we've done wrong would be challenging enough but actually talking to the people we've hurt and trying to correct things is more challenging than anything I've ever done.  Maybe the King of Cups offers us a cup of kindness and forgiveness.  He offers us the way to forgive ourselves for what we've done in our lives.  It may be much easier for us to forgive those who have hurt us than it would be to forgive ourselves.  In The Lord's Prayer there is a line "forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us".  Asking for the divine to forgive us is one thing but actually feeling that forgiveness is different. 

The gift of the King of Cups is not just that he can counsel us and emotionally support us through the trying and painful times.  It is that he can help us cleanse our souls.  He can offer us the forgiveness and healing energy we need to move forward and let go of past hurts and trespasses.  Maybe that is my role right now - I'm helping mom feel that forgiveness and healing energy.  I hope it helps because I think she needs to be able to move forward and that won't happen until she stops letting the past hold her back.