Mi-Shell said:
To me it seems, that the imagery on this card is unsucsessfulu squeezed into an RWS framework to fit “boredom” the feeling usualy invoked by the 4 of Cups.
What I see in this card is not boredom at all, but someone THINKING deeeeeeply!
I see it as someone who has voluntarily taken a time-out and has withdrawn from the life around them. This is a time to let things "stew" a little, to come to a deeper understanding or a decision. It's temporarily leaving the outside life to focus on the inside life.
Then again, the separation isn't complete (how could it be?!) as shown by the way the white hart and peacock actually cross the border and reach into the inner space of the square.
It could also mean trust in the richness of life - it won't be gone if we withdraw for a while but it will still be there in all its bounty for when we return to participate in it.
Mi-Shell said:
So: what do you think?
What nectar was/ is in the cups?
Water?
Wine?
Soma? The drink of wisdom and vision?
My spontaneous answer would be: water, because water feeds all life and is part of all plants and animals... In that way, water also is a symbol for a very basic and universal source of nourishment.
And look what I've found: the Thinker has been put onto both a
bill and a
coin of Romanian money- isn't that another interesting link to the element of Stones/Earth? (I've also attached smaller versions of the linked images so Mi-Shell can easily access them, too, with her slow dial-up...)
Here's another short article about that statue, the place where it has been found, the Hamangian culture, and how the statue became an icon that has even been sent into space.
Even more exciting: a
website that shows the original statue in an image that you can turn around by clicking and dragging the cursor sideways (it may take a little until it moves for the first time, and you may have to click onto the button with the four arrows, but then it should work)! That website also has more information about the statue on the bottom:
Interpretation:
The attitude of thinking of this statuette could be linked to meditation about life and death, considering that the artefact belongs to a funerary context. The Thinker was also interpreted as a vegetation God that has to die in order to resurrect the following spring, or as a Death God, consort of the great Goddess.
Considering this, Chesca Potter's take starts to make more sense to me. I can see a link between thinking/meditating about death/loss and how that could lead to not noticing the bounty of life that's going on around one. Or is that too much of a modern Western understanding of death?
Mi-Shell said:
In European lore the feathers are unlucky and the cry of the Peacock is a bad omen.
I know Peacock as a symbol for beauty and vanity. I have no idea if this is related to earlier European lore, but I thought I'd put it out here.
Together with the withdrawal I talked about above, this could mean not living a superficial life that is only concerned with outward appearances but to also spend enough time to "simplify" and go within.
Le Fanu said:
But maybe here there is the danger of overthinking, set into a framework of a more spontaneous "journeying."
Mi-Shell said:
Then again, there are people, they live mostly in their heads
.... Think think think is all I do....
(Feeeeeling is tooo scarrrrry!!!)
Also there would be: I think, therefore I am....
While I am more like: I feel, therefore I am....
I can see that in the card, too, maybe even as a way of overdoing the reflection and withdrawal from "life" I described earlier.
It might not be a reversed meaning as such (as I never use reversals anyway), but it could still be part of the range of meaning for this card, depending on its context in a reading.
