The most powerful attachments are usually not to an individual or a job or a geographical area. More often than not, the most intractable attachments are to potential—visions of what could be, exaggerated extrapolations from what is. It’s often not the present we fear leaving—it’s the future we thought we had lined up. Tarot is gently nudging us to reconsider our thinking here.
Today’s Tarot forecast is the Eight of Waves (i.e. the Eight of Cups) or Lord of Abandoned Success, associated with Saturn in Pisces. The Zodiac Tarot’s rendition is quite elegant, showing a man rowing off toward the mountains. He’s working (Saturn) his way through his watery emotion (Pisces).
You see this fellow when abandoning emotional entanglements. Often considered a harbinger of growth (the uncomfortable kind), the question suggested by the Eight of Cups is, “What are you willing to leave behind, for the sake of moving on?”
Note the cups in the RWS card have not spilled. This river hasn’t dried up—in other words, the emotional dynamic is intact. It’s just not all it was cracked up to be anymore, for whatever reason.
Having Saturn in Pisces, I do have some insight in working with this vibe. I’ve found if I get too hazy (Pisces) with boundaries (Saturn), then fear (Saturn), restrictions (Saturn) and the demands of martyrdom (Pisces) can swallow me whole (Pisces).
On the other hand, work (Saturn) to transcend (Pisces), exercising emotional (Pisces) self-control (Saturn), seems most fruitful. The secret lies in absolute clarity about what’s yours and what’s not. Now, I’m not saying this is easy! Far from it. We care about people in our lives—how they feel and fare matters to us. But we don’t own it, we don’t choose it, and we don’t live it. We own our own lives. Nothing more, nothing less.
The Eight of Waves would have us focus on our own rowing. Know what’s your emotional work and what belongs to others. The most help you can provide to anyone else is a good example of sanity. If you’ve felt trapped in an unpleasant emotional cycle, the exit doesn’t come from changing anybody else. Even if you could (which you can’t), it would be wrong, cheating them out of their own realizations and growth process. Row your own boat, and look for kindred spirits once you reach shore.
You feeling the Eight of Cups? How?
 Zodiac Tarot by Lo Scarabeo |
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“What are you willing to leave behind, for the sake of moving on?”
everything and everyone. I hope they choose to visit when I get where I am going..but either way, I’m still going. Doesn’t mean I won’t miss them. Doesn’t mean I won’t question my actions somewhere along the way but now that I’ve STOPPED the bolting due to fear and have been able to hang in until I figure out the why and what for, when I do decide to go, I’m gone with no regrets. What they do is not my choice. What I do is my choice. If our boats meet again in more stable waters, I will be elated. If they dont, I’ll still be fine. I don’t get towed around by another captain anymore. I have taken the helm. Not an easy task, at all. What you say is exactly right and the decision is not without pain. But, life is neither 100% joy or agony.
excellent reading Dixie (I swear sometimes it’s like you are following me around in my head..lol)
I have Saturn in Pisces too, and have often been at a loss for it’s meaning in my life. Thanks for the personal note on this one Dixie.
You’re quite welcome, Michelle.
We do have to “row our own boat” and take responsibility for our own emotional state. This is the first time I’ve looked at this card and thought of forgiveness, but all the negative emotions that keep us from moving toward forgiveness are inherent in this card, too. And, when it comes to forgiveness, we are definitely the rower.
I think there is a lot of forgiveness in this card, both of others and oneself. Excellent point, CJ.
Thanks, Dixie!
As always, great cards! And Josi? Your words MOVE me. I’d like to be one of those people you meet up with in more stable waters.
I’m rowing!
aw Kim
You have no idea how affirming your comments are to me!
(((KIM)))
Much love and I’m sure our paths will cross!
Whoa. As always, your read is spot on. I love the explanation you gave for this energy and I especially love your examples of the shadow version and of the productive version too.
Plus, the attachment to the future we think we have lined up. Yeah. That’s one lesson that I keep working with and working with and working with…..
Thanks Dixie.
I know more than one version because I’ve done more than one. Keep on motoring, Mari.
Interesting (but at this point, not too surprising) to see this card here today. I pulled it yesterday.
Yeah… I’ve dealt with this one before, and I have a good idea what it wants me to know. It tells me that, not only is the chapter over, the book is over, too. I’m done here. Time to move on. I’m still in that weird place (the VOID – which you so aptly pointed out a few days ago, Dixie!) and I can’t see the future at all. I have no idea what it’s going to be. And I need to be ok with that. I just need to shelve that book (with respect) and then leave the library.
Ok then. Time to go. I’m always up for a Road Trip! :-))
Ouch. And so helpful to read the reflections about this card today. Ditto everything Mari said.
And… am feeling this big-time, this morning, and glad to have the reminders about how to deal… to transcend. Am feeling the old emotional entanglements like a riptide I get pulled into. The pull is strong, but I know how awful it feels going in there — I have done it so many times before. Can taste and feel it, just getting close to it again. Tastes like martyrdom, alright. Intense feeling, but would prefer intense love or something — to which it is connected. It is my stuff, as triggered by the same old relationship dynamics with the same old person.
So wish I could transcend it without walking away from… well, just stopped and re-read. I am willing to leave behind going into the riptide, for the sake of moving on. But I am still in the water, it seems, so will get back in the boat and focus on my rowing, cause that is what it is all about probably. Thanks!
Yes, forgiveness is the best! So helps one to be able to move on. Thanks.
Oh boy… I needed this!
You know this lesson.
Sometimes I think I need to be smacked on the head with it multiple times to finally *get* it though.
I think the next octave of a lesson can show up because you’ve mastered the first. It’s like finer points on a painting, the detail work. The early versions prepare you for later versions as you’re in the process of internalizing. By the time you’re done here, your boundary definitions will be completely unassailable. This is toughening you up, see?
I see! That would be great, unassailable boundaries! :peace:
So interesting how you do this, Dixie. Right on again! Today, I wrote someone that I was done with the game and moving on. This person has been creating lots of drama with this situation and now (again) was putting me on hold… Good luck and be well. It was hard to write, yet uplifting for me to let the drama that he was playing go. The game is over as it was being played. So this card and reading lets me know…I am right on track with what I am doing. Blessings to you, Dixie.
And to blessings to you, Jenn.
I didn’t get a chance to read Daily Tarot yesterday, because I had to go take my mom to a nursing home/dixiblog/domains/afoolsjourney.com/public_html. I followed the ambulance from the hospital to the new place, and so began a day of rowing down that river.
Hoping that she can get stronger and GET BACK home/dixiblog/domains/afoolsjourney.com/public_html soon. But will that be possible? I was seeing this as going down a road, away from your home/dixiblog/domains/afoolsjourney.com/public_html, and you can’t see around that corner, but I guess it was a river.
As I left in the late evening, she was settled in, and chatting it up with her new roomate and everybody who walked in the door. That lady was getting totally spoiled and she was kind of loving it.
It was just me I guess who was more upset. And this reading seems to confirm that. Especially since, as I was driving home/dixiblog/domains/afoolsjourney.com/public_html trying to process the feelings, I said “What would Dixie say?” And I got back “Is this mine?”
So, prophetic sweetie… as I’ve said so many times, I’m not even surprised anymore as I see:
“The secret lies in absolute clarity about what’s yours and what’s not.”
(Ragdoll heard me thinking.)
(((Sofie))) Sending love to you and mom.
And lots of thanks and love to one special angel…