cosmic tarot - 8 of cups

star-lover

was looking at this today as it came up as one of my cards for my daily card draw

what i noticed is that instead of all the cups being upright as in the traditional decks, 5 or 6 (couldnt make out which one) are standing and the other 2 or 3 are on the ground

what do you make of this? to me it says although there is sadness and hurt there is so much that is still ok and that everything worked for is NOT destroyed or even left behind - however all the cups are empty by looks and this is how this person feels - emptied and dry??

this card reminds me of the 5 of cups - the colours are very similar the stance is v similar - but is deeper in meaning - the 5 is retrievable some of what is lost but with the 8 it seems more in your face its final, whereas the 5 is more of a bad emotional blip which is repairable and easier to kiss and make up

the 8 is far far more serious stuff

the man is sitting down pensive with a sort of gobsmacked look, obviously very sad at realising something was not what he thought, things were not as he thought, thinking what was all that about, i can't believe i was so wrong, all that wasted time and energy and for what - but with the upright cups i would say none of it was wasted really

where do i go from here

i think its a coming to terms with the end of something and as such is a positive card in my view
theres a certain KNOWING where things stand but parts of him are still trying to make sense of it all - bewilderment? but also mainly acceptance

i read somewhere that the 8s are about repetition/vicious cycles and such, do the same/feel the same/think the same and you will get the same, not going nowhere with current mind set, somethings got to give/change


just my 2p
hope that wasnt too vague
i find it a v interesting card and v poignant obviously to relationships
lol

x
 

paradoxx

good interpretations, there is a sense of exhaustion in this card. The colors show a that the light is fading, and that what was fought for was only half of the ultimate goal. The wanderer should not go too far is how I see this deck's 8 of cups, fight for the homeground first, then worry about other places.
 

tink27

Looking at this card, my first thoughts were, that events can occur in our lifes that we have absolutely no control over. There will be times we will be forced to face and deal with the totally unexpected and completely undesired things in our lives. As star-lover has said, this man has probably suffered sorrow and tradegy, loss of love, sadness, traumas that have deeply effected him 'emotionally'.

Sometimes we so want to fix what has gone wrong that we become so preoccupied in fixing it, we shift our focus from the desired outcome. The circle's not round anymore but twisted.

Could the rocks laid about him reflect stifled emotions, self-doubt and blocked creativity?

Also I wonder with the black jacket if this man leads a life that is different in the public eye then in private.

Also behind him, the winds are blowing in the distance and we peer into that which seems infinite. Could it be that he is disturbed by the infinite and the inevitable and doesn't like feeling this way?

Hmm just some thoughts bouncing your way....any other ideas?

tink
 

Myrrha

Looking at this card I see a man who is depressed, and maybe confused. He is doing that thing with his hands that people do when they wish things were different. His forehead is wrinkled making his face look sad and worried.

He is at the seashore and the boat behind him is so old it is rotted away, so he may feel like he doesn't have the means to get away from his situation. The cups are scattered around carelessly as if he were dissatisfied with them. All but two of the cups are still upright and none of them are broken so I wonder if his situation is as bad as he seems to think.

The title of the card in the Thoth deck is Indolence. The original Golden Dawn title is The Lord of Abandoned Sucess. The astrological attribution is Saturn in Pisces (the black of his jacket and the dark blue of his shirt are Saturn's colors.) Saturn is an influence of restriction, like a heavy cold weight. It is assocciated with melancholy and depression and that fits this picture. Pisces is a mutable water sign, an environment of emotion and flow where there isn't anything to stand up to the Saturn influence.

I don't know if the word "depression" was in use in the time of Crowley and the Golden Dawn or if people then recognized it the way we do. They might have been talking about the same thing but using different words. "Indolence" means laziness and a person who is depressed might seem lazy to others. Depression (either the serious kind or the mild and passing kind) can make you feel that what you have, that you once valued and worked hard for, is actually crap and want to leave it behind the way this man seems to be dissatisfied with his cups.

Still, if you call it "depression" it doesn't imply responsiblity in the way that calling it "indolence" does. Rather than allowing depressed feelings to become an excuse it would be more empowering to look at how you are sabotaging your own success by letting feelings of dissatisfaction lead you to abandon a situation prematurely.

So it looks to me like the card is about depressed feelings, and those heavy, "blah" feelings that can make you feel dissatisfied with your situation and lead you to want to leave it behind, abandon what you have made or built or accomplished.
 

Madame Squee

Saturn in Pisces is the astrological relationship connected to the Eight of Cups.

It appears to me that Norbert Losche has depicted clues in all of his cards -- both to the astrological symbols and to the meaning of the astrological relationships.

In the Eight of Cups, the symbol of Saturn is embroidered on the man's jacket pocket over his heart, and the yin yang position of the Piscean fish is mimicked in the position of the man's hands.

I believe the key to understanding this card is in knowing why Saturn was placed over the heart and Pisces was placed in the hands. (I haven't exactly worked it out yet.)