Card 5 — She of the Cruach


From the Faeries' Oracle...

Starter Reading

She of the Cruach may indicate a form of pregnancy, a necessary time of nurturing and development. We need to be open to Her overflowing grace. She may also indicate a need to allow Her nurturing grace to flow through us to others in the form of unconditional love and giving and spiritual healing. She tells us of the need for unconditional receiving, of making the best of what we are offered. She also reminds us that unbounded love and grace is ours, just waiting to be accepted.

The presence of this card in a reading radiates comfort and nurturing to the cards around it.

Faery Lore — the inside story

The Receptive Principle. Nurturing. Fertility.

This is the Great Goddess, the many-named mother of all, and all goddesses are attributes or aspects of Her. Her cup, the Cruach, overflows with bounty for all. She is the yin energy of the universe — nurturing, compassionate, and wise. She gives form and brings into manifestation the will and life force of He of the Fiery Sword. His is the intention, the action, and Hers is the manifest reality. In a sense, She is the Cruach holding all the worlds within Her being.

One Oracle group member saw the Cruach as a great bowl, like a scrying tool for seeing past, present, or future potential, but filled with energy instead of water. Within it he saw a tower with a moon above it, a farmhouse, and many other bits and pieces of our world. He felt that if you dropped something in the water, these things would scatter out to become reality — archetypes manifesting everywhere. He said, "She is the woman who dreams, and Her dreams are the worlds and all that is in them."

Looking at this card, another Oracle group member notes, "What I see here is the energy of being held lovingly in the palm of the hand of the great goddess, followed by a relaxed sigh and release."

There are many ways in which we may honestly see Her. In all of them She is the source of unconditional love, tender nurturing, and a strength that helps to carry us through life's challenges.

She of the Cruach is the holder of all of our sorrows and all of our joys. Her Cruach, the miraculous chalice, is the womb of birth and the cauldron of rebirth, the chalice of healing, the container holding the germinating seed. She is the body, the soul-shrine that holds the spirit and keeps it from being lost or dissipated in a formless fog. She is pattern and form in the abstract and in the specific. Within Her we take form, grow, achieve fulfillment, and eventually let go of that form to move on to the next phase of our being.

All of the universe, each individual particle, every being, is cherished by Her.

Touch to draw another card


Beannachd!
Jessica Macbeth & Brian Froud


Text copyright ©2000 by Jessica Macbeth.
Art copyright ©2000 by Brian Froud. All rights reserved.