8 of Cups -- Indolence

Julien

I was looking for a thread on this card, and couldn't find it (though it's mentioned in several). So far, it's the card that seems to be having the strongest emotional impact on me -- I really feel like it takes my breath away every time I see it. Part of it is the colors on the cards... And part of it is the word "indolence". I think it runs right up against my very nature (not something I'd ever thought about before)...

I'm curious about other people's thoughts about it -- it has such a strong impact on me that I really would appreciate having others' thoughts to sort of help me work through this response. ;)

Julien
 

ravenest

I thought I've posted on this elsewhere?

Anyway I find it a bit heavy gluggy, syrupy. Its like; ... god damn this 'stuff' I was getting a good buzz off it last week, now I have had so much it just makes me feel .... glug.

I'm bored ... there is lots to do but I cant get motivated ... I'm a mess. The house is a mess. I haven't washed up in days, my chi is blocked, my liver isn't working properly. Ugh! Whats the point of getting up?

It seems to be the reverse of 'energised enthusiasm'. Visually I call it the grey lounge room card; for God sakes, you people have been sitting in here for days, open a window or a curtain at least. Empty the ashtrays and do the vacuuming!

I'm not keen on this card, because I hate myself when I've slipped into this mode, you gotta pull yourself up by your own bootstraps, clean out, clean up and get on with something inspiring, hearty and healthy.
 

Dean

Julien said:
I really feel like it takes my breath away every time I see it. Part of it is the colors on the cards... And part of it is the word "indolence". I think it runs right up against my very nature (not something I'd ever thought about before)...

There is something that looks broken and abandoned with this card, i think the colours seem more polluted and damaged now from after being the Debauched intoxicated pleasures of the 7 of cups, and the word Indolence to me seems like waving farewell to something that has no more energy to give out. I think this card represents something that has lost its power over corruption.
 

Julien

ravenest said:
I thought I've posted on this elsewhere?


I'm not keen on this card, because I hate myself when I've slipped into this mode, you gotta pull yourself up by your own bootstraps, clean out, clean up and get on with something inspiring, hearty and healthy.

Quite likely you did -- as I said, I found mention of the 8 of Cups in other threads, but not really a focused close attention to it...

I think, though, I may well be reacting to it as I do because I also hate myself when I slip into this mode... I read a description of it (maybe the BOT) as describing the situation where the hostess prepares everything for the party but then forgets to invite the guests... I wondered if it wasn't also like someone who invites all the guests but doesn't bother to throw the party (everyone arrives, and no one is home -- or the hostess who did the inviting is there, but is just sitting and watching the TV, and doesn't do anything for her guests)...

As Dean points out, the progression of Debauch to Indolence makes sense in life -- that is, there is an emotional logic to this that clearly works... I'm just so struck though by the fact that I look at that card and I think, "Good lord! Make it go away!" No other 8 of Cups has ever had quite that affect on my own emotions...

Heck, no other card has had that affect... I don't think... I've been reading long enough and with enough different decks... No, no, no other...

I saw this card in a reading over the weekend -- a reading for a friend concerning a relationship. The 8 of Cups represented his feelings; the 5 of Cups were hers. And between... Between was the 6 of Cups... Oh, and yes, the deck had been shuffled and shuffled... The conflicting emotions were so terrible I had to put the deck away for a little while.

But the 8 was the worse. Indolence in a relationship strikes me as a terrible, terrible thing...

Julien
 

ravenest

Julien said:
But the 8 was the worse. Indolence in a relationship strikes me as a terrible, terrible thing...

yeah, like going through the motions without really caring about it ... yuk!
 

isthmus nekoi

If 8 is a reaction to 7, then I imagine the 8 of cups as something like this:

The flow of the thick and viscous sludge of 7 has had to be stopped. But instead of flushing out and purifying the water, it has become stagnant and dead. As time passes, the atmosphere and elements transform the decadant sewage of debaucery into something more concentrated; it has become the heavy poison of indolence.

Although I can't say I have an especially strong reaction to the 8 of cups, the feeling of it to me is also very negative. Saturn in Pisces deadens the water and that's what I feel w/this card: "dead in the water" or "dead dreams".
 

Julien

isthmus nekoi said:
Although I can't say I have an especially strong reaction to the 8 of cups, the feeling of it to me is also very negative. Saturn in Pisces deadens the water and that's what I feel w/this card: "dead in the water" or "dead dreams".

Mmm... I think that's right... But what is the "good" in the card -- that is, given surrounding cards, when would Indolence have a positive aspect?

For example, in RWS 8 of Cups, there's that moment of walking away and looking for something new... And the Thoth 9 of Cups is really quite something to behold -- beautiful... So, if we go with the progression idea, is the 8 a turning point emotionally? The debauchery is the sitting around, letting the cigarette butts pile up and being so completely swamped by the pleasure of the emotions, that you don't bother to exercise any control or structure them... And so you reach the place where you simply look at these things and walk away...

Does it really have to be so poisonous? That's one thing I'm wondering about this card... My reaction is so strongly negative that it's been hard to see where the good is -- the positive aspect -- but perhaps it's in this sense that once you reach indolence, well... Is it possible that the only way to reach the Happiness of the 9 of Cups is by experiencing the Indolence of the 8? So that you have to consciously choose to experience that 9 moment?

Julien
 

Dean

Julien said:
I saw this card in a reading over the weekend -- a reading for a friend concerning a relationship. The 8 of Cups represented his feelings; the 5 of Cups were hers. And between... Between was the 6 of Cups... Indolence in a relationship strikes me as a terrible, terrible thing...

Julien

Julien i agree this seems to me that these two people once had a very happy and harmonious relationship together, but now seems that her dreams have been shattered by the dissapointment of his dying feelings for the relationship, i think the 8 0f cups was saying to him it's now time to move on and take what ever happy momories they once shared together.
 

Barbaras Ahajusts

"Poop on me, club"

Looking at this card I see the pessimistic majority of a group with the attitude of "Go ahead, everybody else has sh*t on me, why not you?"
While a couple optimist are trying to cheer the pessimest up. "...High hopes, we got high hope, high in the sky, apple pie, hopes..."
Nothing is cutting the mustard here.
Poor optimist. That negitive energy might cause them to fall upon their own swords & join the "Poop on me" club.

Barb
 

Julien

Barbaras Ahajusts said:
Poor optimist. That negitive energy might cause them to fall upon their own swords & join the "Poop on me" club.

Now that just might be why my reaction to the card is so strong -- it scares me to think that one can be so deeply affected emotionally that one becomes part of the "Poop on me" club...

It's like saying, "I never get what I want, so why bother anymore." In the meantime, the universe has given you everything, and there's much to enjoy in your life... You just can't anymore. You just CAN'T. And I don't know what comes after that "can't" exactly, but it has to do with "being" as you've been. You just can't "Be" THAT anymore...

Julien