The suit of cups in tarot are about water, which is emotion. Western Red Cedar only grows in wet places. She needs a lot of water to thrive. She needs a lot of emotion to thrive. She is feminine energy, because she is in her element when in big, deep, tender emotions. She is called the Mother Tree or Grandmother Tree in Salish indigenous culture. I like to call her Queen of the Forest, because she is quintessential PNW.
The Mother of Cups or Queen of Cups in tarot rules the emotional realm. She sits on the edge of the ocean, the symbol of the unconscious. She sits alone, which allows her to think. She connects with people on an emotional level and people enjoy her honesty. She has powerful intuition and is a mirror for others to see their own depths.
Mother Cedar's roots have tiny pockets to store water to keep her satiated in the drier months. Climate change is killing Cedars with longer hotter drier spells, because it is drying out her stores and killing the pockets so that when water finally does come, she can't absorb it and store it as well. Cedar invites us to feel our emotions deeply to our roots, not be afraid of them and don't avoid them too long lest we dry up and die inside. She offers motherly nurturing, compassion and empathy, watering our depths, holding our emotions with us. She is the queen of feeling.
