Lately, I have had a very strange situation..  Over the fact that I have been in a relationship with another person of a different religion, I am beginning to alienate from my less open family (and would be alienated even more if they found out I was learning tarot!)  Frankly, the family problems are coming because the aunt and uncle I am staying with until I am able to move into a new apartment have been very emotionally abusive to myself (and my partner), and have been very controlling over my life.

This relationship is not new; it is very strong, but we have been together now for a year, and the "newness" of it wore off quite a while ago.  It is long distance currently until August (we were supposed to see one another again the week after next, but my aunt interfered)..  and I find myself continually drawing 3 cards:

10 of swords
2 of cups
and then a 6 of cups reverse fell out the day I received my new deck, which is also a constant draw, and is always reversed

As I am new to this..  I'm not quite sure what to make of it, but I have had many cups and swords lately in my own readings.

It is my understanding that the cups cards are usually representative of happiness..  yet I wouldn't consider where they land to be happy areas (i.e., coming as the 'current situation' or problem, or as it recently came up in a spread I was trying today, as a related issue in a past life).  I understand that cards are supposed to be neutral messages..  but I can't tell if these are telling me that things are going to be okay, or if the issue of my becoming independent of my family is rather going to turn out badly?

Hellooo, Delerium, nice to meet you.

I am sorry you are going through a difficult situation. I imagine your relatives are afraid that, in case something bad should happen to you, they would be somehow blamed, since you are so young and they are expected to watch over you. That is the way we adults are sometimes: always trying to avoid police trouble, if possible.

Ok, first of all, the Cup suit stands for emotions and feelings in general, not only happiness. It is true that they tend to represent the inner self, passivity, love, imagination, peace, but also vagueness, apathy and sadness.

Other, more stormy emotions are better represented in the Swords suit, that has mostly to do with mental activity, ideas, thought processes, spirit, but also conflict, altered and choleric emotions, anguish.

To make this complete, Wands usually stand for energy, movement, action, struggle, beginnings... And Pentacles are the physical and material side of life, routine, job, studies, health and money.

Well, at least that is how I see them. Since you have had so many Swords and Cups lately, it probably means you are giving a lot of thought and worry to your relationships in general. As for the 3 cards you mention...

10 of Swords is a little melodramatic. It points to a tendency to overreact when faced with a problem, maybe losing perspective a bit in the midst of strong emotions.

2 of Cups usually stands for union, including a love relationship. But it also stands for new beginnings in friendship, camaraderie... And last, but not least, making up after a dispute.

The 6 of Cups reversed is quite interesting. It usually points to the attitude of looking only to the future while being quite alienated to our past. It can also mean that we tend to remember only part of the past or distort it in some way, so that we deceive ourselves about the way things really were back then. As you see, this card depicts infancy, or a time during which we are dependent on others. The fact that you get this card so much is probably so that you give some thought to these relationships: you are about to become independent, so it is only normal that you tend to compare life before and after... Just make sure you are seeing things objectively, instead of colored through strong emotions.

I hope I have been of some assistance here. If not, I am sure someone else will step in. The cards meanings are not fixed, and some people have very interesting insights on the cards that never occurred to me, since we develop meanings as we go from one reading to another and keep adding to them.  

That clears up quite a bit    THe definitions I was looking at (as I am still building my tarot journal) were confusing me and made it hard for me to look at the definitions objectively     This definitely clears away the clouds I was experiencing