Nicoletta Ceccoli ~ Eight of Cups

Hemera

Meet “Cheryl” of Nicoletta Ceccoli’s original artwork.
She is holding 6 blackbirds captive within, in her dress-cage but she is holding the 7th in her hand and maybe planning to let it fly free.
I think she herself is probably the 8th bird? She looks a bit like that, doesn't she?

Eight of Cups is the RWS ‘Letting Go and Walking Away’ -Card. You are letting go and walking away *or* you are letting go and someone else is walking away. In this case Cheryl is the one letting go and the bird will fly away.


Those blackbirds can of course symbolise the obvious; depression, sadness, pain, death. But I think they can also signify energy, artistic creations (blackbirds sing beautifully!) or projects that you have finished and that you are now setting free. In many cultures black birds are animals of transformation, magic and potential. Maybe Cheryl is starting some new process and setting the birds free one by one. Or maybe she will set just this one free and keep the rest for her own magic and to give her the energy she needs.
Although I can't help noticing that she is floating in the air, as if the birds inside her would keep her hovering above ground. She is certainly not grounded. Her ideas (birds) keep her up in the air. -But if she herself is one of the birds then it 's just natural, of course.

LWB: Emotional upset is keeping you from making any meaningful progress. Don’t cling to resentments and pain. Set them free. Key concepts: Inner turmoil, depression, clouded vision.
 

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AnemoneRosie

To me, she looks like she's mentally already gone - and her hair is following suit. She reminds me, not so much of the RWS figure who is walking away, as of someone who has already left the space.

It seems that, in both, the decision has been made. With her, however, other considerations (the other birds) keep her there. It's not so easy for her to cut the ties. And so, unable to cut them physically, she's cut them mentally.

Her workplace equivalent would be someone who's just counting down the days and calling it in until retirement.