The card of “Letting Go….”

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 27 Feb 2004, and now archived in the Forum Library.

Moongold	27 Feb 2004
What does Letting Go….. mean to you? What card would represent Letting Go…. and why? Letting go to me is leaving something to which you are attached. It can be a person, an object or a way of being. It can be a gentle process or a gut wrenching one. Tears are par for the course. Sometimes anger. Or maybe those two things are what happens before letting go. There can poignancy too …..a hundred different things I decided that Fool represented Letting Go for me but I strongly considered High Priestess, Hermit and even Devil. Why Fool? Well, he turns away and walks over that cliff. He begins again. At any one point in your life you can begin again. And you can take as much or as little baggage as you want. Better to take a small amount. Fool only has the flower, his bag and his dog. (One day perhaps some one will be truly radical and put a cat in this image….). Everyone has to let go of something at some stage in their lives. I think there is always a certain sadness attached …………….because of the attachment. But there can also be relief and happiness. I think Fool represents all of these things It is always possible to put a positive spin on this. Some people say “You need not look at it like this. You can see it as looking at how things might be rather than letting go.” But I don’t mean this. I mean Letting go as an authentic act or process. How would represent it in Tarot? Moongold

Rusty Neon	27 Feb 2004
RWS 8 of Cups RWS/Marseilles Hanged Man In the Marseilles deck, it could also be the 7 of Coins. The leaves and stems of the flower don't want to let go of the coin in the second-highest row of the card. However, they should let it go, so that it can join the two coins on the top row.

skytwig	27 Feb 2004
In many ways, I find "Letting Go", or Acceptance, or Beginners Mind in all of the Major Arcana.... primarily because these cards represent aspects of Divinity.... however, several of the Major Arcana sing of letting go more than other cards..... Fool..... for me he IS Beginners Mind. Hanged One ..... giving up my ideas, my perspectives and being willing to look at things differently..... High Priestess .... the Divine Listener Wheel .... It's out of my hands.... In the minors: 9 cups, the Wish card, always says, what's in your heart, not your head!! The Aces pull me to the Wealth of the Divine and help me to forget myself!! Good thread, Moongold!! thanx :)

Imagemaker	27 Feb 2004
The Osho Zen has a literal "letting go" card which corresponds to the 8 of Cups: www.scorpiosite69.freeserve.co.uk/znblu08.jpg That's one form of the action--turning and walking away from a stockpile of emotions. But there's also letting go of expectations about a person or one's self. I had a friend with breast cancer who let go of many things: body-image, the literal breast, her previous plans for her life. (She's fine now and on a new path.) She had a great quote: "Everything I've let go of has claw marks all over it." (Good) parents let go of the need to control their children's decisions. As we age, we let go of our youthful capacities. There's lots of regrets for the loss and need for acceptance of the new situation. I think learning to let go is a daily event for every day after, say, 16. I think the Fool is the next step, after you've let go, stop looking back at what was, and turn to face the future.

Rusty Neon	27 Feb 2004
Quote: Originally posted by Imagemaker The Osho Zen has a literal "letting go" card which corresponds to the 8 of Cups: .... (Good) parents let go of the need to control their children's decisions. As we age, we let go of our youthful capacities. That fits in well with the Marseilles 7 of Coins symbolism. (See my initial post to this thread.)

firemaiden	27 Feb 2004
Arcane XIII For me, Moongold, the Death card. This Christmas was one veeeeery big lesson in letting go. :( I lived the Death Card.

ros	27 Feb 2004
Letting go- Detaching ourselves from a person, situation or thing that has controlled our lives.Having insight that we have allowed this to happen & now aware enough that we do not want the responsibility of carrying the burden in our conscious. Judgement- Clearing out the cobwebs & anything that we buried inside & carried with us, will now be brought out into light & delt with so we can live with peace in our heart. Fool-Detaching ourselves from the outcome. Not knowing the outcome & just doing it. Letting go of worrying about the outcome of our actions.

Moongold	28 Feb 2004
Thanks all~ You have certainly made me think. I would not have thought if 7 Coins Marseilles - thanks Rusty Neon, And I completely forgot 8 Cups, which is the perfect example of letting go. So is death - one dies to what one wants or to will. The Fool is less perfect but more certain since he is emotionally attuned to what is happening. Really tired ~ sorry. Moongold

Marion	29 Feb 2004
I have read this a couple of times, and even chatted briefly about it with a couple of others. To me every life, if fully lived, involves some truly painful letting go. It seems to come in all forms, sometimes physical leaving but physical leaving always has to involve emotional leaving or you wind up torn apart with part of yourself left behind. I cannot, despite your examples, see how leaving could be embodied in just one card. I see it in sequences of 2 or 3 or even more. What about 2 of swords, 3 of swords, 4 of swords, 5 of swords and finally 6 of swords? Can you see leaving in 5 of pentacles, Death, 8 of cups? Too sad? How about moving towards, not away? The rush of love and desire? 4 of cups, The Hermit, 6 of cups, 8 of wands? And what about afterwards, after you leave and now you are in a new place and the all the old stuff has been torn away leaving only claw marks. And now you are a stranger in a strange land. Whether physically or emotionally. What cards are those? I Ching has a perfect hexagram to express this, 56, The Sojourner/ The Wanderer. How do you make yourself a new 'home'? What are those cards? 3 and eventually 8 of pentacles for sure. The High Priestess. Maybe The Wheel. Other thoughts?

Keslynn	29 Feb 2004
For me, the letting go card is the Queen of Swords. Basically, for me she is about having the strength to let go of whatever no longer serves you. It's never easy, and she's made me cry more than once. But that sword does need to be used, and I've learned so many important lessons from the process of letting go. :) Kes

tmgrl2	29 Feb 2004
Letting Go....good topic....The Hanged Man...reversal of attitude, literal hanging out....RW (money falling out) letting go....preceding the peace that follows... Also the 8 of Swords...(RW) just looking at the blindfolded woman surrounded by the swords...feelings of powerlessness...not much left to do but let go ....

Moongold	01 Mar 2004
Quote: Originally posted by Marion To me every life, if fully lived, involves some truly painful letting go. It seems to come in all forms, sometimes physical leaving but physical leaving always has to involve emotional leaving or you wind up torn apart with part of yourself left behind. I cannot, despite your examples, see how leaving could be embodied in just one card. I see it in sequences of 2 or 3 or even more. What about 2 of swords, 3 of swords, 4 of swords, 5 of swords and finally 6 of swords? Can you see leaving in 5 of pentacles, Death, 8 of cups? Too sad? How about moving towards, not away? The rush of love and desire? 4 of cups, The Hermit, 6 of cups, 8 of wands? And what about afterwards, after you leave and now you are in a new place and the all the old stuff has been torn away leaving only claw marks. And now you are a stranger in a strange land. Whether physically or emotionally. What cards are those? I Ching has a perfect hexagram to express this, 56, The Sojourner/ The Wanderer. How do you make yourself a new 'home'? What are those cards? 3 and eventually 8 of pentacles for sure. The High Priestess. Maybe The Wheel. Yes, I see what you mean. Letting go is rarely simple or cut and dried. It is more often a process. Perhaps a hundred little deaths. Someone said Love has a hundred gentle ends.. You are describing a reality, Marion. Moongold

crystal cove	01 Mar 2004
For me, the "letting go" card is the 6 of cups. It isn't a card that shows up often so it didn't originally mean that for me, but after showing up that way in a few very powerful readings for me, the connection was made.

skytwig	01 Mar 2004
Quote: Originally posted by Keslynn For me, the letting go card is the Queen of Swords. Basically, for me she is about having the strength to let go of whatever no longer serves you. It's never easy, and she's made me cry more than once. But that sword does need to be used, and I've learned so many important lessons from the process of letting go. :) Kes Interesting.... the root meaning of the word DECISION is "to cut off"!!!!! Thanx Kes, for that insight. :)

cartarum	01 Mar 2004
to me, the cards of letting go include the devil reversed, the five of cups reversed, the nine of pentacles reversed. physically, its quite the six of pentacles. all letting go is the antithesis of the tower, and the four of pentacles. you will see.

Rusty Neon	01 Mar 2004
Yes, it's true that many cards in the deck can represent some aspect of Letting Go or the need (or the fear) of letting go. Even the card of the miser (RWS 4 of Pentacles) could be seen as the need to let go, or as the refusal to let go.

Moongold	02 Mar 2004
There are different types of letting go. This anonymous poem is really aimed at letting go people who might be addicts or perhaps who have other problems which somehow end up involving everyone or which can be very destructive to relationships These can be the most painful experiences. I think that writing and reading poetry is very like reading Tarot which is why I offer this here. Letting Go Author unknown To "let go" does not mean to stop caring, it means I can't do it for someone else. To "let go" is not to cut myself off, it's the realization I can't control another. To "let go" is not to enable, but to allow learning from natural consequences. To "let go" is to admit powerlessness, which means the outcome is not in my hands. To "let go" is not to try to change or blame another, it's to make the most of myself. To "let go" is not to care for, but to care about. To "let go" is not to fix, but to be supportive. To "let go" is not to judge, but to allow another to be a human being. To "let go" is not to be in the middle arranging the outcomes, but to allow others to affect their own destinies. To "let go" is not to be protective, it's to permit another to face reality. To "let go" is not to deny, but to accept. To "let go" it not to nag, scold or argue, but instead to search out my own shortcomings, and correct them. To "let go" is not to adjust everything to my desires but to take each day as it comes, and cherish myself in it. To "let go" is not to criticize and regulate anybody but to try to become what I dream I can be. To "let go" is not to regret the past, but to grow and live for the future. To "let go" is to fear less, and love more.

Star Spirit	02 Mar 2004
Sigh...that poem makes me sad right now. So true. There are a lot of cards that signal letting go to me...but one of the most important to me is Judgement. I usually see it as moving from something old into something new, a death and rebirth, and most often, letting go of past issues, forgiving and forgetting, and focussing on what lies ahead.

Moongold	02 Mar 2004
Here is another from Rainer Maria Rilke, almost a mystic himself, about the pain of letting go. Song You, whom I do not tell that all night long I lie weeping, whose very being makes me feel wanting like a cradle. You, who do not tell me, that you lie awake thinking of me:-- what, if we carried all these longings within us without ever being overwhelmed by them, letting them pass? Look at these lovers, tormented by love, when first they begin confessing, how soon they lie! You make me feel alone. I try imagining: one moment it is you, then it's the soaring wind; a fragrance comes and goes but never lasts. Oh, within my arms I lost all whom I loved! Only you remain, always reborn again. For since I never held you, I hold you fast.

Moongold	02 Mar 2004
I think that some of the hardest things t let go of are old ideas about oneself that, for good or ill,have sustained us over the lifetime. The beauty of Tarot is that the various images help us understand who we are and what we might yet become. They fill one with hope.

The The card of “Letting Go….” thread was originally posted on 27 Feb 2004 in the Using Tarot Cards board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Using Tarot Cards, or read more archived threads.