Four of Cups
The Fading Fellowship
Focus for the Day: Be honest with yourself about elements of disillusionment or burnout in life. Be even more honest about any places where either your ego or your fears may be overriding your truer, better nature.
Look toward YOUR Holy Grail, whatever that means to you. Then begin to do what you need to stay grounded and true to your higher ideals. And move toward them today.
We last saw this card on Samhain (Hallowe’en). It’s one of those burnout ~ vs. ~ idealism kinda attention-getters. And please note: this IS one of those BE CAREFUL cards.
When this card turns up for a client, I usually say something like:
Look. There are a couple of possibilities you need to watch out for here.”
One is that you’re nearing a point of disillusionment in your life
[so maybe go to my blog and look at the Card for January 1, 2009!
https://shamanspath.wordpress.com/2008/12/31/tarot-card-for-the-day-january-1/],
or real burnout, or both.
So you really need to look hard at how you’re living so you will start taking much better care of yourself on that score.
“The second possibility is that words like
imaginary vexations (watch out for THAT one!),
drunk,
sloppy,
disorderly,
foolish,
blind,
ego-driven blowhard
may apply with real impact somewhere in your life − although they may not necessarily be about you personally.”
So what do you do in response to a card like this?
In the Legend deck I use, the image on this card gives a suggestion. It shows the Knights of the Round Table during the period when they had conquered their initial passels of bad guys and had nothing much to do but sit around drinking, thumping their chests and generally being swine.
But…
In the picture, there is one upright and stalwart fellow looking out a palace window. What he is seeing is The Holy Grail, floating in over the castle walls.
He sounds the call, the knights all run down to the great hall, The Grail casts its holy and magical spell over all present, and the lot of them clean up their act, pull themselves together and go on one of the great spiritual quests of all time.
[And, I’ll tell ya: The world could really use a great spiritual quest right now. We might even be able to have it, if we didn’t automatically start by spending most of our time and energy hacking each other to bits about who knows God/Goddess by the right name {Meryl Streep? Mithra? Lounge Kitty?} in the right color {Black leather? Blue pinstripe? Khaki cargo shorts?} with the right kind of feet {One eagle claw? One old Nike Air Huarache? One Electric blue Manolo Blahnik? One ballet slipper?}.]
What this card implies is that, for your benefit and happiness,YOU CAN –and would do well to — be that one knight looking out onto a greater vista and being open to great miracles.
Stay grounded. Hold to your ideals. Refuse to demean yourself or anyone else by succumbing to a get-along by going-along philosophy. Don’t even agree with me if you don’t feel like it. [But have another cuppa and think it over at least, willya?]
If you perceive that this card talks about the quality of your personal life:
!!!!!!!!!!!!!STOP!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Spend at least a little time taking stock of what is really important. REALLY important. Figure out how you can pursue that!!!
If this is a card about your workplace or a relationship − and you find it’s a situation worth working on − let yourself say:
“Hold on. IS this the right direction? I think we need to look at changing. What are the ways we can do so and move together, toward the highest and best?”
So, I repeat: Be honest with yourself about elements of disillusionment or burnout in life. Be even more honest about any places where either your ego or your fears may be overriding your truer, better nature.
Look toward YOUR Holy Grail, whatever that means to you. Then begin to do what you need to stay grounded and true to your higher ideals. And move toward them today.
Bright Blessings, joy, renewal and a spiritual quest!
Quote for the Day: We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. ~ Oscar Wilde
Today’s Weather: Moist, inflamed, slightly painful and…. Oooopsie! Silly me. Ahem…. Intermittent gorgonzola with afternoon avocado wedges. Pack an astrologer. Hold a sous-chef hostage against possible capers or peppercorns.
On This Date: 1538 – Pope Paul III excommunicates Henry VIII of England. Henry belches, grabs a wench or two and breaks wind in the general direction of Rome.
A note:
You may have noticed a slightly different format to the card today. It comes from a conversation with a friend, who said, “I love the Daily Card. I love all the colors. But listen ya wordy b**@#, gimme a summary first. Then, if I ain’t got buggerall to do that morning, I’ll read the rest; otherwise I’ll save it till later.”
So from now on, the summary will come first, and will be repeated later for those of us (like I) who need to see the important stuff at least twice. who need to see the important stuff at least twice. who need to see the important stuff at least twice.
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