The Wild Unknown Tarot - IV Cups

EightWands

I'm about ready to purchase this deck, but am puzzled about one of the cards-- hoping someone can shed a bit of light.

The 4 of cups. The mouse. What is going on there and how does it relate to apathy and boredom and discontent?

This art is beautiful but there's a few cards which confuse me and I've seen a few pics of the book's pages -- will definitely be getting the book. Usually when i purchase a deck like this that I know comes with a book, I just have to have it as well. ;)
 

lark

I'm about ready to purchase this deck, but am puzzled about one of the cards-- hoping someone can shed a bit of light.

The 4 of cups. The mouse. What is going on there and how does it relate to apathy and boredom and discontent?

This art is beautiful but there's a few cards which confuse me and I've seen a few pics of the book's pages -- will definitely be getting the book. Usually when i purchase a deck like this that I know comes with a book, I just have to have it as well. ;)

In the book she really says nothing about the mouse...since I also read lenormand the mouse to me represents a nibbling away.
So that is how I see this card, someone might look ok on the outside, but on the inside something is nibbling away at their contentment and happiness, and they are preoccupied with that.
 

Sulis

I'm about ready to purchase this deck, but am puzzled about one of the cards-- hoping someone can shed a bit of light.

The 4 of cups. The mouse. What is going on there and how does it relate to apathy and boredom and discontent?

This art is beautiful but there's a few cards which confuse me and I've seen a few pics of the book's pages -- will definitely be getting the book. Usually when i purchase a deck like this that I know comes with a book, I just have to have it as well. ;)

It sounds as if you're going into this with meanings already in your head.. Who says the 4 Cups should be about boredom and discontent? This deck isn't the Rider-Waite-Smith ;).
I find it's best to just read the card and use the image, the number and the element... If you're trying to fit the cards into meanings that you already have memorised in your head then in my opinion, you're going about it the wrong way around..

4s are about a pause after the initial burst of energy in the 1, 2 and 3, stability, foundations, directions, enclosures, security, consolidation and Cups for me are about feelings and emotions.. Cups represent the element of Water so with the pause that goes with the 4 you can get stagnation...
To me the rat is on the top of the cups so is saying that these cups are full, you can't add any more to them. You have everything you need emotionally for now but don't pause here for too long or boredom and discontent will follow. Mice and rats are also very inquisitive so maybe this card is advising you to examine how you feel about something... As with all questions about card meanings though, the answer depends on the question, the context and the surrounding cards.
 

ladybird

In the book she really says nothing about the mouse...since I also read lenormand the mouse to me represents a nibbling away.
So that is how I see this card, someone might look ok on the outside, but on the inside something is nibbling away at their contentment and happiness, and they are preoccupied with that.
4s are about a pause after the initial burst of energy in the 1, 2 and 3, stability, foundations, directions, enclosures, security, consolidation and Cups for me are about feelings and emotions.. Cups represent the element of Water so with the pause that goes with the 4 you can get stagnation...
To me the mouse is on the top of the cups so is saying that these cups are full, you can't add any more to them. You have everything you need emotionally for now but don't pause here for too long or boredom and discontent will follow. Mice are also very inquisitive so maybe this card is advising you to examine how you feel about something... As with all questions about card meanings though, the answer depends on the question, the context and the surrounding cards.

I like your interpretations, Lark & Sulus! Did you post about this in the study group yet? I'll go check. Thanks!

I'm about ready to purchase this deck, but am puzzled about one of the cards-- hoping someone can shed a bit of light.

The 4 of cups. The mouse. What is going on there and how does it relate to apathy and boredom and discontent?

This art is beautiful but there's a few cards which confuse me and I've seen a few pics of the book's pages -- will definitely be getting the book. Usually when i purchase a deck like this that I know comes with a book, I just have to have it as well. ;)

I do think the book can help somewhat especially if someone is fresh to tarot. Although, like Sulis has pointed out, the art/symbols can spell it out without guidebook. The definitions in the book have your basic RWS meanings but she writes them in a way that's sort of connected to her art. It's quite nuanced though. You probably have read that KKrans doesn't go into her process of creating. You'd probably do fine without it and in fact, the people who participate in the study group have done an incredible job so far reviewing/defining the art from their POV. I personally like this approach as there can be different ways to see a card and this has shed some unique light to some of the images. Go check it out if you haven't already. I'm grateful to have the book still, even with it's finite information, it's still very lovely. I love her handwritten text. $20 is steep to pay for it and I may be singing a different tune if I had paid full price for it. Since I got a killer deal, I'm happy with what it is.

An excerpt from the guidebook to give you an idea...
Four of cups
Greed, Discontent
"an outsider would look upon your life & see supportive relationships, pleasure, & even a bit of luxury. But you don't see it that way...warns not to take your situation for granted..."
 

celticnoodle

An excerpt from the guidebook to give you an idea...
Four of cups
Greed, Discontent
"an outsider would look upon your life & see supportive relationships, pleasure, & even a bit of luxury. But you don't see it that way...warns not to take your situation for granted..."

this is one time that I think the book really helps with the meaning in the card for me. I love that she used a mouse (or is it a rat?) laying across the top of the 4 cups. I always see mice and rats as greedy and sneaky, so the meaning given in the book is so accurate for me here.

I never really thought about the 4 of cups before as being sneaky and greedy until this deck. I love how it takes it from just ordinary discontent and boredom and lack of direction to a sense of greed. How in her explanation, others on the outside looking in see the person as having all they need and could ever want, and yet that mouse--looks sneaky and greedy, sitting on top of the 4 cups he already has. Hiding the contents of those 4 cups from view, and seemingly on the lookout for what else he can grab!
 

DaisyDragonfly

Yes, I saw this as a rat! It seemed to fit better with the general feeling of the card.

Which is, for me, of somebody who has the tools for emotional stability and enjoyment - the cups - but is for some reason keeping them under wraps. The water, which should be refreshing, is stagnating; their tools are under-utilised and under-appreciated. As a result, the person will be feeling on edge and discontented - that's the rat, gnawing away at them - but might not be immediately able to put their finger on why. Maybe they're keeping themselves away from something they enjoy; maybe they're spending too much time alone when they'd be better served by getting the healthy perspective you get from other people; maybe they're letting a talent go to waste.

I rather like the rat in this card. See what happens if you don't keep everything out in the open? Take your talents for granted and they can rust and corrode just the same...
 

Sulis

I think it looks more like a rat too and DaisyDragonfly I love your take on this, incorporating the element of Water and how it will stagnate which is represented by the rat gnawing away.
 

EightWands

True. That would be a rather big mouse. Haha. I love the meanings here and thank you! Gives me much food for thought.

I see a rat attracted to something that isn't being used. The cups of drink just sitting there, unappreciated, so attracting a punch of pests. Just like when you leave food laying around uneaten.

(I love mice and rats btw. ;) But I can understand the symbology).

I went ahead and ordered early this morning. I'm so looking forward to its arrival! :)
 

crystalwings

At the back of this card from the bottom, intense darkness sweeps up consuming any light, until just over half way up when the light starts to penetrate the darkness to reveal in the top quarter the light, centred in the middle of which looks like the waxing gibbous the phase after the full moon. I love the romance of the full moon, so this phase speaks to me of the honeymoon period been over. Across the bottom of the card shroud in darkness four glasses/goblets, stand in a row, invoking the need for stability and grounding.
Across the top of glasses/goblets lay a rodent, its placement has its mouth that could dribble into the first glass/goblet and toilet in the last. Contact with its body is made along the top of all four glasses/goblets. Eating or drinking, food or water contaminated with rodent urine or droppings can cause bacteria and disease. Although not always some bacteria’s and diseases are caught through contact. With the above in mind there is a general unwell feeling from this card, whether lethargic, or due to food poisoning, flu, sickness, or a contact disease etc…
The continual growth of the rodent incisors are, kept under control by constantly gnawing. This brings to mind something that is eating at the emotions or causing an irritation.
 

Ildrinn

I'm completely fresh to this deck and I try to put all preconceived ideas about what the cards are about and just be fresh and intuitive with them.

When I came across this card I was struck with a completely different energy than "selfishness and greed" (which the little paper that followed the deck said, which I read after I had drawn my own conclusions) and different to some of the ones already mentioned, so here goes:

When I saw this card it made me think of a person with very low self-esteem or out of place. Someone that feels they are all blacked out up there in the light with all the illuminated, the bright, the brilliant and the beautiful. This black crescent that has no place in the daylight.

Someone who holds themselves in the dark. Thinking they are less than everybody else. Someone who sits on a well of gifts and potential but can't see it for the darkness they surround themselves with.

I feel it is all about a mental state, not necessarily a physical state. Could be both. Someone a little lost and alone, but that has a lot to offer if you shone a little light on them.