Six of Cups: A Stateless World is Probable
Mutual Aid, Charity, and Communities of Care
Children at the Washington Monument at the March on Washington (August 28, 1963)
The president has bum rushed the federal government to maximize his power. The most prominent figures in the US are in a war crimes group chat. Near every service or benefit the state has provided is on the verge of elimination.
What about this situation makes it seem like we live under a thriving, ascendant state?
After all, conservatives by their very nature want a small, useless state. It was neoliberals, including democrats, that wanted an expansive state. It helps them build soft power, which maintains their global power.
Both neoliberals and conservatives would do the same things with power. Which is to say, they'd fuck up your life and mine.
But of course I'd say that, after all, I am an anti-statist.
Not in a tankie sense, not in america. Since the state provides too little and takes too much, we have to build our own backup.
Of course, that's a general sweep. I have no desire to see those around me loose the meager benefits we get. I don't want to see people lose food stamps, or health care, or public transit failures.
And yet, under every prior administration, we have seen those things. I paid almost $800 per month for public healthcare last year as a disabled person.
No card is more instructive of this than the Six of Cups.
As a diviner who's had a public facing practice for fourteen years, I try to keep my eyes on my own plate. I'd rather improve myself than criticize my peers.
Yet the saddest part of the spiritual boom of the past few years is how meaningless it's all been.
There's nothing wrong with spiritual strategies for self-improvement. But when it stops there, it might as well be playing sports, or doing skincare, or a Shein haul.
A commodity is a commodity. If it makes you feel superior to others instead of in service to your community, then it's bullshit.
That's how even the most grounded ancestral traditions, including my own, get pushed. It's also one of the ways the state preserves itself.
People get focused on themselves. They want to consume something, anything to self-actualize. There's little time to build the communities that allow us to survive.
Spirit-led strategies can connect our struggles to something bigger than ourselves. When we recognize this, we can reduce infighting as we work towards a common goal.
The state is shrinking; the state is failing. I don't romanticize what's likely coming next. I do think that our intuitive strategies can help us survive it.
Let's start with the Six of Cups, tarot's card of mutual aid.
When I position it as such, people often rush to offer the Six of Pentacles. This worries me. What part of seeing two figures on their knees begging for money, and a rich person standing over them says "mutual aid."
And yet, mutual aid is often confused for charity. This is part of what can make it so contentious in practice. We've set few communal standards of propriety. We've made little headway in providing for those who need aid indefinitely or for large asks.
What results is a disorganized free-for-all where you can get your needs met if you're very popular. I say this with little bitterness; I'm very good at crowdfunding. In a world where actual mutual aid was common, I wouldn't have to be.
There's often a sense that mutual aid is different from charity because it's peer to peer. Yet, in practice, it often still traffics in the same logic of deservingness as charity.
It still requires the rich to give to the poor. It does so without demanding the rich find strategies to become unrich. We also let the rich draw from pools of mutual aid, which they do to great success.
In this way, two things are true at once. So-called mutual aid often manifests as the Six of Pentacles. Actual mutual aid would manifest as the Six of Cups.
Tarot's Sixes and The Path Ahead
Tarot's sixes show up momentary wins and the results of recent changes to our path.
They often show us movement of some kind. The Six of Swords removes us from a bad situation onward to an unsettled future. The Six of Wands puts us on a triumphant horse to celebrate our victory. The Six of Pentacles gives us some help after a period of scarcity.
The movement of the Six of Cups is more limited. It still speaks to progress, and fulfillment. Like the Six of Pentacles, it shows us change through care. This is a departure from the other two cards who show us change through action.
I often say, and see, how a difficulty dealing with and working through the emotions that arise during conflict destroys movements. The Six of Cups highlights the importance of cultivating positive feelings as a bulwark when conflict arises.
This is emotional equity in the form of building relationships of mutual benefit, with good intentions. The Six of Cups shows us that we have a good grip on what those around us need to survive.
Tarot's sixes give us an opportunity to take a look at where we are and make a decision. Are we on the right track, or do we want to change course.
Figure O1: The Officer
The most neglected image on the Six of Cups is that of the armed guard in the background.
The children in the foreground are completing this exchange (is it theft?) at a dangerous time. They are getting what they need behind the back of those in power.
If they had asked the powerful politely, then the guard may have handed them the cup himself. (This calls back to the scene on the Six of Pentacles!) Instead, the children wait until his back is turned to act.
There's a chance these children will receive serious consequences for their actions. Still, they act to help one another. May we all be so brave.
Such a stance recalls the brave students who participated in protests for the last few years. It also recalls the constant threat of unconstitutional repression we currently face.
Figures O2, O3, and O4: The Children and their Environment
Care is our nature. We turn our head towards the crying child. We cry when someone cries in a movie.
It's hardwired in us. This is why the state, an unnatural imposition on our behavior, teaches us not to care.
We're taught that caring about others is an inconvenience, even a pathology. Yet this erodes our ability to care for ourselves as well.
Humans are pack animals. Isolation is toxic to us and can reduce our lifespan and our happiness. When we face isolation, we do whatever we can to fill the void. In the US, we achieve this through consumption.
The Six of Cups reconnects us with our ability to care.
When you look around the children, you see that the house is sagging, but so is the castle. Everyone is doing bad in this environment of carelessness.
The land is dry and unyielding. No grass grows. No trees offer shade. No long shadow or pitying cloud passes by to shield the children from the sun.
No crops grow in the distance. No table bears the Empress' fruit. The Emperor, however, is present in the stone plinth the left side cup stands on, the rocky path, and the sandstone buildings.
Plenty of structure, with little abundance. One gets the sense that these children have to grab a cup. The little one on the right wears tattered clothes.
The other child is better dressed. Have they come from the castle? They don't seem to be a monarch, but maybe they're a parent works in the castle.
Do they know the time of day the guard likes to take his lunch? Did they find out where they keep the extra cups?
The scene is bleak, yet the kindness of the act is the focal point. This is also where we find ourselves when providing mutual aid.
The children do not seem of vastly different means to me. They may have simply found themselves in different situations. One is also older than the other, and perhaps more in the know.
How do we share what we've learned with each other? What do you know that can help others survive?
Figure O5: The Cups
The cups are the only thing that grows in this landscape. They can represent how our emotional and physical needs are tied. No one can survive someplace where nothing grows without help.
Are the cups what the guard is protecting? If so, things must be very dire.
We can make up any number of stories about them, but from the look on the little one's face, there's delight in them. They meet a need.
The look on their face, to me, is relief.
How do we help each other relieve the burden of scarcity and competition, the theme of tarot's fives? How do we restore each other during periods where we have little of our own, and little to give.
The Six of Cups can ask us the questions that make mutual aid work. When this card shows up, it's time to give altruistically. It is time to listen to community.
It is time to liberate and communalize our resources.
Hey, I’m Cyrée
I’m a rootworker, diviner, and clinical herbalist. I believe that spirit work is an essential part of all movements for justice. I hope you’ll take a look around, there are plenty of opportunities here to deepen your connection with your gifts (with my guidance.)
Here's how to activate the Ace of Pentacles to find some stability in a soul sucking world.