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The Eight of Cups is one of the three cards of the Tarot expressing setting out on the way, showing goodbye to the heavy heart. It shows that we are leaving our usual environment, leaving people and things close to our hearts behind, and moving towards an uncertain future. In any case, we go out of our own will, we were not sent, although we may have no choice. The extremely serious meaning of the card lies in the double burden: we have to give something up that was dear to our hearts and our way leads to the unknown.

EIGHT OF CUPS : INDOLENCE

The four Eights are attributed to Hod. Being in the same plane as the Sevens on the Tree of Life, but on the other side, the same inherent defects as are found in the Sevens will apply.

Yet one may perhaps urge this alleviation, that the Eights come as (in a sense) a remedy for the error of the Sevens. The mischief has been done; and there is now a reaction against it. One may, therefore, expect to find that, while there is no possibility of perfection in the cards of this number, they are free from such essential and original errors as in the Lower case.

The Eight of Cups is called Indolence. This card is the very apex of unpleasantness. It is ruled by the planet Saturn; time, sorrow, have descended upon pleasure, and there is no strength in the element of water which can react against it. This card is not exactly “the morning after the night before”; but it is very nearly that. The difference is that the “night before” has not happened! This card represents a party for which all preparations have been made; but the host has forgotten to invite the guests; or, the caterers have not delivered the good cheer. There is this difference, though, that it is in some way or other the host’s own fault. The party that he planned was just a little bit above his capacity; perhaps he lost heart at the last moment.

The Eight, Hod, in the suit of Water, governs this card. It shows the influence of Mercury, but this is overpowered by the reference of the card to Saturn in Pisces. Pisces is calm but stagnant water; and Saturn deadens it completely. Water appears no longer as the Sea but as pools; and there is no florescence in this card as there was in the last. The Lotuses droop for lack of sun and rain, and the soil is poison to them; only two of the stems show blossoms at all. The cups are shallow, old and broken.

They are arranged in three rows; of these the upper row of three is quite empty. Water trickles from the two flowers into the two central cups, and they drip into the two lowest without filling them. The background of the card shows pools, or lagoons, in very extensive country, incapable of cultivation; only disease and miasmatic poison can flourish in those vast Bad Lands.

The water is dark and muddy. On the horizon is a pallid, yellowish light, weighed down by leaden clouds of indigo.

Compare with the last card; it represents the opposite and complementary error. The one is the Garden of Kundry, the other the Palace of Klingsor.

In the psychopathology of The Path, this card is the German Measles of Christian Mysticism.

THE EIGHT OF CUPS - INDOLENCE

Astrology: Saturn in the 1. decan of Pisces Tree of Life: Hod through Water

The Eight of Cups has driven the debauch of the Seven to absolute excess, the delusions have lost all attraction and all that's left is frustration. The sequence of the numbers has reached Hod, calling for structure and logic, but the emotional waters of Briah cannot be happy with this call and remain in dumb resignation. 

Nevertheless, happy or not, the call must be heard to leave the bogs of numbness, and the Eight of Cups tells us to abandon the past, leave the current situation, make up our minds most honestly and open our eyes to upcoming changes.

Drive: Temporary success, but without further result, things thrown aside as soon as gained, nothing of lasting value, journey from place to place, searching for riches 

Light: Transformation 

Shadow: Depression, suicid, whining, instability

THE EIGHT OF CUPS - Indolence - Saturn - Moon - Farewell

Keywords: Saturn in Pisces, restraint, restraint, uncertainty, emotional inhibition, laziness, swamp, need for clear distinctions

Advice: It's time to assess what you are capable of and say no. Perhaps an old pattern of behavior causes you to always direct your love towards people you receive nothing in return. It may also be a sign that you may not dare to accept love.

Questions: Who thinks about this? Are you ready to stand up for yourself and be brave? In what situations did you hide your true feelings?

Suggestion: Draw another tab asking what will change if you learn to say no.

Revelation: Develop your own statement according to the cards drawn afterwards.

Analogies:

Ji-Ching: 56. Lü (The Wanderer)

Mythology: The Travelers (Lot)

Keywords: goodbye with hard heart; divorce, divorce, resignation, insecurity

Each emotion is individual and must be lived differently.

EIGHT OF CUPS

General Meaning

The Eight of this suit is often used to signify a disappointment, emotional setback, betrayal or injury to the heart. Some Tarot decks illustrate this principle showing a young woman who has just been molested and then cast aside by a stranger passing through her village.

His heartless act has left her vulnerable, with potentially drastic consequences. This is a difficult card, but a realistic one, insofar as it warns against misplaced trust and unguarded vulnerability.

In the Reversed Position

The Eight of Cups reversed suggests that you may have experienced a terrible event, yet you have somehow not allowed it to ruin your life. You don't indulge in the kind of emotional agony this card generally represents, which may be a sign that you are more resilient than others; you bounce back from setbacks.

Under the circumstances you are doing fine. You are learning to transform disappointments into a will to change. Your resilience converts adversity into positive accomplishment.

In the Advice Positon

With the Eight of Cups in this position, look inside and recognize the part of you that still nurses an old grudge from a past injury or trauma. For the most part, your forward-looking self has gotten up and moved along. You are getting on with your life. There may still a part of you, however, that holds out and resists the healing. Are you nursing old wounds from painful losses of faith and trust? If so, now may be a good time to scrutinize your current motives.

See if you are still being influenced by the part of yourself that cuts short your enthusiastic, optimistic impulses. Do not deny this pessimistic tendency. Failing to recognize the truth only causes repression that flares up in another part of our psyche. Instead, seek to understand and accept the hesitation and the fear you may feel, and come to terms with them. Then you can put some old emotions in their rightful place — out of the way.

Read more:

• » The Book of Thoth - A Short Essay on the Tarot of the Egyptians by Aleister Crowley.
• » Liber LXXVIII - On the Tarot - A complete treatise on the Tarot giving the correct designs of the cards with their attributions and symbolic meanings on all planes. - A description of the Cards of the Tarot, with their attributions, including a method of divination by their use.
• » Manuscript N - The Tarot - A Golden Dawn Manuscript - A Theoricus Adeptus Minor Paper.