The number 10 indicates that something is over but not finished and about to begin again - completion and perfection.  Cups are associated with love, happiness, relationships, dreams and the emotional pleasures of life.  Traditionally the 10 of Cups symbolizes tranquility, happy family life and achievement of dreams, emotional fulfillment, contentment. 

Gail Fairfield:  You've reached a level of security with your psychic work but nothing's changing or growing anymore.  You know you need to take some risks and move on but you're not feeling quite ready to do it yet.

Artist's Inner Vision (AIV):  "The Ten of Cups represents the joy and satisfaction brought to us by warm and loving relationships.  These relationships give us strength, courage and nurture our spirits.  This card speaks of the hope that this contentment will be permanent in our lives; it says with hard work and the continual balance of power and responsibility within relationships, it can."  The scene in the movie Parenthood where one character realizes that despite all the challenges he has faced in raising his family, without those experiences and their love he would not the person he is today.

Lisa Hunt used the Spanish tale of The Girl Fish to illustrate the energy of this card.  In this tale a beautiful, spoiled girl catches and enchanted fish.  Determined to eat the fish, despite her mother's warnings, the girl is turned into a fish herself.  She travels to the undersea queen's palace to seek help breaking free of the enchantment.  The queen agrees to help the girl if she will bring the queen back her crown, which will break the queen's enchantment.  The girl sets forth on her journey and manages to bargain with the giant who holds the queen's crown and wins it back from him.  When she returns to the queen everyone is set free of their enchantment and the girl fish ends up marrying the queen's son (who now rules her former kingdom and fell in love with the girl when she was in the shape of a deer).

In different ways, both these cards incorporate the theme of emotional growth and maturity into their energy.  The AIV 10 of Cups shows a happy family surrounded by lovely flowers and verdant fields.  They are happy together and have no reason to fear or worry.  On the Fairy Tale 10 of Cups the 3 mermaids seem to be releasing the cups into the ocean currents and allowing them to float away on the bubbles.  It's as if they are releasing their energies into the world so that their joy can be shared with others.  In my mind this scene occurs near the end of the tale just before they are transformed back into their human shapes.  What they have learned over their time as mermaid swill stay with them but now they are able to release some of the things they won't need anymore and allow them to bring emotional enrichment to others.

So what does all this have to do with living today to its fullest?  I would have to say that there is a two-fold message for me.  The first is that I need to embrace and accept the face that I need to release certain emotional ties to things that are now in the past and move on.  I need to find a path that allows me to grow and improve my psychic skills.  If I tried to maintain the status quo I would end up stagnating or at least allowing that side of myself to atrophy.  I need to find a way to start using those psychic muscles and making them stronger.  I also have to have some faith in the ones I already possess.  I have often found it interesting that I don't respond well to the energy of the Cups suit.  I am often resistant to its influences.  I am more comfortable with my intellectual side.  I am much more at ease thinking or doing rather than feeling.  Trusting my intuition and inner nature does not come naturally to me.  I have noticed that I'm growing more comfortable with it lately - flexing those muscles a bit more.  But I still have a bit of a journey ahead.