Prince of Cups
Correspondences
Air of Water
Keywords
Tension between feeling and mind, charisma, gaining clarity of our own feelings, conflicting emotions
Meaning
Traditionally the Prince of Cups can signify a romantic, a knight in shining armor, a sensitive and seductive young man. The Prince may sometimes have problems with truth and reality and may turn out to be a liar and a betrayer. The seeker is faced with the task to reconcile intellect and emotion.
Exploring the Card
Conflicting emotions are a hallmark of Draco’s development. Attachment to his father makes him hateful of muggles and muggle-borns and all those who protect them. It also makes him proud to be entrusted by the Dark Lord with the important mission to kill Dumbledore. He is cold-hearted, underhanded, a bully and on occasion downright vicious, as when he stomps Harry in the face on the Hogwarts Express.
At the same time the pureblood and Death Eater expectations thrust on him nearly destroy him. He cannot bring himself to become a murderer, he fails on his mission and eventually becomes a victim of the forces he thought he controlled. In the end we see him downright shocked and sickened by the pain and death of others such as when he has to face the strung-up teacher for Muggle Studies or when he weeps for his dead friend.