Eight Of Cups: Searching For Something More

A man turns his back on eight cups and heads off in another direction. Mountains lie in his path. The cups belong to him. They represent relationships or things from which he draws emotional satisfaction. But he turns his back on them because they no longer serve his needs. He's off to find something or someone better.

There's a lot of emotion surrounding this card as evidenced by the EIGHT cups and the winding river. Water = feelings. It's never easy to let go of a partner or friends or things which have been an emotional support for you even if you know this is the right thing to do (or the card tells you it is, lol.) That's why the moon's face looks so sad. You have to be really dissatisfied with what you already have.

And that's only half the battle. A lot of work and effort will be required to create new relationships/emotional supports in your life. It's as hard as climbing mountains. And there's no guarantee you'll find anything on the other side. The man looks alone and is alone in this quest.

Because there are eight cups you are dealing here with deep emotions. This isn't the card you get when you break up with your first puppy love. More like when you break up with a long-term partner. Someone who has brought plenty to the table but isn't the right fit for you. Think a la Goldilocks. The girl with the golden locks could have had her hunger sated by those first two bowls of porridge but she keeps looking until she finds the one that satisfies her completely.

The Eight of Cups is also the card of the spiritual quest. It comes up when you feel the need to turn your back on material concerns to search for the meaning of life or it's closest equivalent. I guess you dear reader perusing these posts about Tarot cards fits into that box, ha!

Can you relate? Please share. Someone? Anyone? Helloooo?

Card Of The Day

I’ve noticed there are lots of people on the Internet offering a ‘card of the day’ type service. The way it works is that they pull a card from the deck to represent the day ahead and share the meaning of that card with peeps.

Now, there’s no way that card could symbolize the experience every single one of their followers is going to have that day. Tarot doesn’t work like that. It’s personal. Tarot decks prefer to speak to the people dealing the cards. A reading done for a broader audience is going to be much less reliable, if it works at all.

However, I think card-of-the-day services can fulfill a higher purpose. Namely, they can help you learn the meanings of each card. There is just so much information to take in when it comes to Tarot it’s good to have it broken down into bite-sized chunks to swallow. So long as you keep in mind that there will always be more meanings to learn. Fifty shades for each card, remember?

An even better way to learn to speak Tarot is to do this activity yourself. Buy some cards (You can get a Rider-Smith-Waite deck from Amazon for a reasonable price.) Everyday stick a new one on the fridge or somewhere else you’ll see it. Note what happens to you. See if any of the images on the card leap out. Write down your observations in a journal. I promise you that over time you will see patterns form. (Or just come here and we’ll discuss it together. I’d like that.)

And if you see any card-of-the-day explanations on the net that you think are great please share them below (with the author’s name of course.)

The Tarot Of Meetings

I have to attend a long meeting after work tomorrow and already my spirits are sinking at the thought. So just to amuse myself (and hopefully you too) I thought I'd contemplate the Tarot of meetings.

The Eight of Pentacles = Meetings in general.

A man carves out a series of pentacles one after another. This seems to be the most likely Tarot equivalent to a meeting scenario. (Please correct me if you have other ideas. As I keep saying I want this to be a conversation not a monologue. You can spend a lifetime studying the cards and still not know everything. I learn things all the time about the cards just like you are.)

The Eight of Pentacles + The Seven of Swords = This is me tomorrow night pretending to listen whilst really shopping for school, surfing the net or writing my next post. Ha!

The Eight of Pentacles + The Knight of Swords = The fella up the back of the room jiggling his legs impatient for the damn thing to be over.

The Eight of Pentacles + The Fool = The first meeting ever for a group.

The Eight of Pentacles + The Four of Wands = Meeting to plan a wedding or some other celebratory occasion.

The Eight of Pentacles + The Eight of Wands = The dream meeting! Lots of stuff gets done quickly. Not what I'm expecting tomorrow night however :(

The Eight of Pentacles + The Six of Wands = Scoring a win at a meeting.

The Eight of Pentacles + The Five of Swords = Being bullied at a meeting. Or maybe being the bully. Depends which person in the card you gravitate to most.

The Eight of Pentacles + The Four of Pentacles = Someone being a tightarse with the budget.

The Eight of Pentacles + The Eight of Swords = Being unable to come to a decision.

The Eight of Pentacles + The Ten of Swords = A meeting where you've lost the will to live. That's pretty much my experience every time. He he!

What about you? Which card combination would encapsulate the way you experience meetings? Please share.

The Emperor: Hey Dad!

We had a look at The Empress recently so it seems only fair to check out her counterpart, The Emperor. He's one of the Life Lessons (Major Arcana) cards so he carries a bit of weight in a reading but as he's found early on in Life Lesson Tarot he's not too complicated. What does he represent?

He's your dad.

He's you as a dad.

He's a hard worker, or, the need to work hard.

He's the one meeting out discipline or the need to be disciplined.

He's successful. Gets things done. (Cause he works hard and is disciplined. The knee bones connected to the thigh bone.)

He's where you experience limitations.

He's good at saying no. (Whereas The Empress is the yay-sayer.) Note: He's not a hard arse. That's more the King of Swords. The Emperor has expectations but he's not cut-throat or mean about it. Just firm.

He's rules and regulations.

He's every authority figure. Authority in general. Policemen in particular.

He's the rock you can lean on. But also the immoveable object in your path.

He's your inner critic. (Whereas The Empress is more like your inner encourager.) That voice in your head that reminds you what a loser you are.

He's the screws turned tight. The control freak. Obsessive compulsive behaviour. When I was a teenager I had to have 16 teaspoons in my Milo (an Australian chocolate drink). Had to. 16 exactly. That sort of thing.

He's in charge. The patriarch. Your boss. The dominator in S & M situations.

He rules. Sometimes with a fair hand. Sometimes with an iron fist.

He makes you feel safe and secure. Will defend his loved ones to the death.

He loves routine.

He's self-controlled. You can't rattle him no matter how much you try.

And he makes no apologies for all of the above.

You need to exert a little Emperor energy if you want to achieve your goals. Forcing myself to write on this blog every day no matter how #$&% I feel is tres` Emperor. (Actually #$&% represents tiredness more than anything else. Not a very exciting emotion huh? But day-to-day life exhaustion is my mortal enemy when it comes to writing. You can't write if you can't think and you can't think if you're tired. I've been off work for the last two months caring for an ill family member and go back to my day job tomorrow. So it'll be interesting to see if the quality of my posts are affected. I'll be drawing on all The Emperor reserves I have to write them I can tell you. Teaching children is like pouring your energy down a black hole every single day. Lucky I enjoy it.)

How you feel about The Emperor card will tell you a lot about how good you are at setting boundaries in your life and/or about your relationship with your father. So how do you feel about The Emperor? Please share.

Your Tarot Year Card

As I said in a previous post there's a numerological formula you can use to work out which Tarot card represents the type of experiences you can expect to have during each year. I've been using it for so long I can't remember anymore where I learnt this trick but as I said I find it quite reliable.

The formula will give you a number that correlates with one of the Life Lesson (Major Arcana) cards. Because of the way it works each following year you will shift into the subsequent Life Lesson card e.g. If your Tarot Year Card in 2012 is The Empress, in 2013 it will be The Emperor. But the turn of each decade signals a re-set button. Thus in 2009 my Tarot Year Card was Judgement but in 2010 it flipped back to The Hanged Man.

I find it quite interesting that through this formula Tarot insists that each decade has its own particular flavour. Because the western media also classifies time in this way i.e. Each decade is seen as a distinct social period. The 90s was the grunge epoch whereas the 00's was all about de bling where people got into debt to fund their dream lifestyles. I don't think anyone's worked out what the '10s are yet but I'm wondering if it'll have something to do with the rise of the internet, with the spread of information through blogs like this. With the end of the gatekeepers such as media owners and merchandise importers. I quite like that idea.

The formula is this: You add up your birth day + your birth month + the current calendar year. Then you work out which Life Lesson card matches the number you got. If the number is greater than 21, you add the digits together.

The Life Lessons cards are numbered as follows:

1 The Magician

2 The High Priestess

3 The Empress

4 The Emperor

5 The Hierophant

6 The Lovers

7 The Chariot

8 Strength

9 The Hermit

10 The Wheel of Fortune

11 Justice

12 The Hanged Man

13 Death

14 Temperance

15 The Devil

16 The Tower

17 The Star

18 The Moon

19 The Sun

20 Judgement

21 The World

My birthday is the 22nd May. The formula for me this year is: 2+2+5+2+0+1+2 = 14 which is the number of Temperance, the card of finding a new balance. Thus as a writer I expected to be doing a lot of editing and so I have been. But there has also been a shift in my relationship with my teenage children which I wasn't expecting. A re-balancing. As is appropriate when your children become adults. (Not that it isn't still shocking and scary as a mum.)

It's important to point out once again that you should use this formula with a grain of salt (I throw a lot of salt over my shoulder while using Tarot, lol). You should never let the cards chain you to a particular outcome. That would be using Tarot Devil style. I use my Tarot Year Card mostly to teach myself about the cards. I note the experiences I have and see how that could fit into the meaning of the Tarot Year Card.

Have a go and let me know what you think. And if your Tarot Year Card is one I haven't focused on yet and you'd like to know more about it let me know in the comments section below. Cheers!

Ways To Be Successful According To The Good Book Tarot (Part 2)

As I said yesterday, you can achieve success in various ways according to the good book Tarot. Here are the ones that stand out for me from the Life Lessons part of the deck.

The Emperor: Success achieved through hard work and discipline. For some reason potty training comes to mind. After a lot of practice and concentration every kid eventually manages to swap nappies (or diapers as they're called O.S.) for undies (as we call pants here in Australia).

Wheel of Fortune: Success as part of the natural ups and downs of life. Sometimes things go your way for no particular reason. More of it I say.

The Sun: Living the life of your dreams e.g. You love being a mother more than anything else and you get to be a stay-at-home mum.

The World: The ultimate success. Where you're at peace with your life in every way. Not only are you living the life of your dreams but in doing so you're contributing to the broader community.

Because these are Life Lesson cards we all get to experience them at some stage in our lives (hopefully.) And let's not forget the Court cards when it comes to success. Getting a king or queen can signify mastery of a particular area of your life.

So there you have it. Any other suggestions?

Ways Of Being Successful According To The Good Book Tarot (Part 1)

You can achieve success in various ways according to the good book Tarot. Here are the ones that stand out for me from the Everyday Tarot part of the deck.

Four of Wands: Success at bagging yourself a partner or getting people to generally wish you well using your social skills.

Six of Wands: Success achieved through natural talents or skills developed over the years. You experience this type of success after being in a job for awhile. It's when you've learnt how to work the ropes to get what you want in the workplace.

Six of Pentacles: Success thanks to another party. Maybe you win Tattslotto or get an inheritance.

Seven of Swords: Success by being a master tactician or sneaky bastard. And if you're both the world is your chupa chup (my daughter insists I say this, she doesn't like oysters). A shout out here to our friend Lance (see previous post)!

Eight of Wands: Success at achieving something you've been working towards. Such as getting funding for a business idea. It's the kind of success that comes out of the blue after a hard slog.

Nine of Pentacles: Success achieved all by yourself.

Nine of Cups: Just generally feeling successful.

As a teacher I employ many of these scenarios. I use my experience (6 Wands) and strategy (7 Swords) to maximise learning in the classroom and have benefitted from being well looked after by my bosses (6 Pentacles).

Are you experiencing any of these types of Tarot success right now in your life? You know the drill, please share.