Everyone has a dark side. Everything has a dark side.
And Tarot cards are no exception!
Each and every Tarot card has both a light and dark aspect and today I want to focus on the BAD side of those sunny, bright, cheery Tarot cards.
This is a helpful exercise to do when you get a positive card in a negative position in a Tarot spread. Like when you ask “what do I need to let go of?” and you get The Sun or the Ace of Cups.
So let’s get crackin’!
All Tarot cards shown in the above video are from the Dame Darcy Mermaid Tarot
The Sun
This is the quintessential “positive” Tarot card and it’s hard to find anything negative about it.
But let me try…
Do you remember back in the mid-2000’s when The Secret came out and everyone was going on and on about positive thinking? To the point where it got really annoying?
Have you ever felt pressured to be more positive?
Or to be extra-super-duper positive even when things were unacceptably horrible?
Like working for a company that treats its staff inhumanely but then demands that you show “team spirit” and enthusiasm and smile all the time. That shit is soul destroying.
This whole discussion makes me think of a great book I read a couple years ago – Bright Sided : How Positive Thinking is Undermining America by Barbara Ehrenreich.
Two of Cups
Two people, clinking glasses and putting their heads together in a glow of mutual appreciation.
What could go wrong? Plenty!
Meeting a like minded individual who shares your values and vision can be intoxicating. But once the thrill fades and you realize that you must also compromise – what used to be a strong connection might start to feel like a prison sentence.
Sure you might agree on eating vegan, going to yoga retreats and watching George Carlin stand up routines, but then you discover they can’t load a fucking dishwasher properly and love to eat Twizzlers and go to baseball games…god what were you thinking?
Now it’s your turn!
I’ve picked a really uplifting and happy card for you to tear into…the Three of Cups!
I wish there was a secret formula for figuring out the “dark side” of a cheery card, but there isn’t. So you just have to contemplate it and get creative…
Tell me, in the comments below…what do you think this card’s dark traits are? What is the downside of all this celebration and camaraderie?
I can’t wait to hear your pessimism!!!!
To me it says two’s company three’s a crowd or too many cooks spoil the broth .. My interpretation is that there are 3 people in a relationship and no matter what kind of relationship it is 3 is a never a healthy number .. Someone is going to feel left out or cheated on.
The Dark Side of the 3 of cups is what you don’t know about the people you are celebrating with, their hidden secrets. Everyone puts their best face on when they go meet with a group. “Everything’s great!” When really, they are cheating on their husbands or doing bad things they aren’t sharing.”
Totally! Actually this card kind of reminds me of those ridiculous dinner party scenes on shows like The Real Housewives.
Hi Kate, my take on the negative side of the 3 of cups is that in the rosy glow of celebration it may be easy to assume everything that needs to be done is done whereas there may still be essential things unfinished. Also many new plans are hatched in the excitement of the moment (sometimes under the influence of alchohol!) and are seen to be unrealistic or worse still foolish only later on.
Thanks Kate for this post nudging me to look at the cards from a different angle. Jim 🙂
yes, yes! I love this – I’ve heard many great plans being hatched while people were drinking and then of course they never really come to fruition.
It seems to me that this card, in a negative context, could be trying to tell one something about being prone to fall to seduction or being easily influenced by over-indulgence or close friends.
Hello, Kate!
For the three of cups i would say that if it comes, let’s say, in the celtic cross in position 2 – obstacles, it might mean that we shouldn’t rely about everything on other people or friends or those who are close to us. Of course, it depends what are other cards so surrounding this card and our intuition. So these might be the obstacles – relying too much on other people, for example “what they might say if we do that or that…”.
an idea about the three of cups reversed. This card is about friendship and sharing. In a negative context, it’s when there is an unequal balance within a group of friends Maybe it’s always the same person who ends up taking responsibility for the group, such as paying for the drinks, cooking the food, organising or cleaning up after the party, or doing the driving.
Being so caught up in “having fun” …. adrenaline or perception altering substances (even legal ones) that when the fun is done you’re completely useless to do anything after. Either because you’re having a panic attack about having done something in hindsight really stupid or because you need sleep.
I’m feeling a sense of it being a celebration that’s being watched from the outside — it looks great, seems fun, everyone is smiling but….it’s not your party. Perhaps you were obligated to attend the event or maybe you weren’t invited and have to listen to what great time everyone had or you felt like you were the fifth wheel….
Being cliquey and not allowing others in to your group or not noticing that you may have formed a clique and others feel uncomfortable or intrusive if they try and join in.
The Dark Side of the three of cups. The first thing which always comes to mind for me is overindulgence. Three woman out on the town, celebrating, getting drunk, think of all the trouble which can come about. 🙂 Bullying is also a possibility. A group forms and a cloud covers them pulling them into a like-mindedness which can easily turn sour as they gang up on others who are not in their group. As mentioned by others, the group of three always end up having issues, one usually gets left out somewhere down the line, leading to feelings of anger and abandonment.
It’s a clique. I hate cliques, and clique mentality, they can be insidiously and viciously destructive to everyone else.
Simply over indulgence!
Train divils working together and women who are stronger then men in a lot of ways but 2divils putting something negative around this positive person for no real reason but she overcomes and pervail s at the end
Since a card reversed can mean the opposite to the upright position,there can be a possible breakdown of a friendship.To my mind,this card shows that the two holding hands could well be cliquey.That sort of thing does often be the case in groups meeting together.
Robin.
Yes! In fact, this reminds me of the summer when I was 9 and my best friend, her step sister and I would take turns ganging up on one another and excluding them. Groups of three never work!
Jim Jones style mass-suicide: they’re drinking poisoned Kool-Aid.
hmmm…that’s an interesting one. I like it! Kind of like peer pressure or group think?
In that particular deck, it comes across to me like the downside of an AA meeting, where it’s fine while everyone is still in the club, sort of addictively drinking the coffee and having the donuts and cigs and gossip and dating within the group and all, but when some people start to move on and leave behind the unhealthy food and habits, they can feel sort of cast out by the group that has become a serious–maybe only–support in their lives up until that point, since their healthy moves can feel threatening to those not making them. YMMV.
I love this analogy so much, Donnalee! I used to work in a rehab center and this is so true.
I think in this card that even though they are all friends to me it seems to me there are two that seem to be closer as the are holding hands so maybe I’m getting the feeling that the two that are holding hands have a secret between them And the other does not know. Yes? Could I be correct?
That’s a great idea! Triads are never stable and I think there’s a word for it – “triangulating”. In fact, it’s talked about a lot in a book I just finished called The Dance of Anger. I’m not sure if that is really what you meant here, but that’s where my mind went after reading your comment!