Quantum Tarot: the Eight Cups

nisaba

This card is subtitled "Nuclear Radioactive Decay", relating it to a couple of other cards that I've discussed, and I had to think for a moment before I "got" its relevance to my own personal understanding of the energies of the Eight Cups, which for me has to do with the passage of time, of separating oneself from the past and from places and things that tie one to the past.

Then I thought, you idiot, Nisaba - radioactive decay is *all* about time passing, and changing from the state you had in the past to a different state you will have in the future! How obvious is that!

Five translucent Cups stand in a neat row along the bottom of the card. Standing on them three more, a gap between the second and third filled by the negative-image of a nude man seen from behind, looking up and into the distance.

I'm going to take a moment to say now that I've commented on some photographic elements in this deck before being reproduced in the negative: I like that, it gives those figures, faces and hands a surreal, dreamlike energy which fits nicely with the whole concept of being outside of regular day-to-day consciousness. Tarot is outside of regular day-to-day consciousness although it brings its own light to the world; quantum mechanics is outside the realm of Newtonian physics (regular day to day physics) even though it brings its own special light to it also.

Now where was I - the man is standing ankle-deep in water, which graces the lower right of the card and fades into pebbly land to the left and night-space above. Clusters of particles and pre-particles abound. A glowing part-diagram of a sphere drawn in non-Euclidean triangles extends off the right side of the card, and is what the man seems to be looking at. There is a large cluster of fundamental particles and smaller clusters which seem to be breaking away and speeding out of the image - slightly blurred as if in rapid motion.

In other cards we have looked at the boson "particles" (not at fermions yet) which are responsible for giving energy to the breakdown of the nucleus and allowing pre-particles to escape the grip of the Strong Force resulting in what we know as the atomic decay of radioactive minerals; here we see a smilar viewpoint from a different angle, this time the angle of leaving behind what is necessary to be left behind in order to further our lot in life.

The naked man, definitely not a musclebound warrior who may enjoy nudity as a way of showing off, seems very vulnerable, especially with his slightly rounded shoulders. This card does not demonstrate teh most enthusiastic and positive reasons for leaving people, places and times of the past behind - he is not headed anywhere special or inviting. He is just leaving behind the dragging weight of the past, mirrored in the dragging weight of a larger atomic weight being reduced for the future.
 

swimming in tarot

May I join in, or is this a closed conversation? I'll post, and you can tell me not to.

I find the composition of this card striking. Seen at a distance, it looks like the fellow is still part of the arrangement--his reflection is still connected to it, visually. His memories and heart-strings are probably still attached to the old scheme of things. His nudity is symbolic, I feel, of the fresh start he must make--not only has he left his baggage behind, but his very clothing. He is surely in an emotionally vulnerable state, willpower notwithstanding.

And, smack me for this, but I also see in his nudity a visual pun. You will recall that many decks feature an eclipsed moon on this card? Well...there's the "moon" facing us, and it's "eclipsed" (in negative).
 

nisaba

swimming in tarot said:
May I join in, or is this a closed conversation? I'll post, and you can tell me not to.

Oh, absolutely! This is a public area. the more the merrier. I don't own this forum, I didn't create this deck - I just bought myself a copy. Some of hte people who were involved in this discussion in the past seem to have faded away, so say as much as you like. There are more threads you can join in on at <http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=109565>.

swimming in tarot said:
I find the composition of this card striking. Seen at a distance, it looks like the fellow is still part of the arrangement--his reflection is still connected to it, visually. His memories and heart-strings are probably still attached to the old scheme of things. His nudity is symbolic, I feel, of the fresh start he must make--not only has he left his baggage behind, but his very clothing. He is surely in an emotionally vulnerable state, willpower notwithstanding.

Interesting. I would have thought that if his baggage were still attached to hsi heart-strings, it wouldn't necessarily be left behind yet - perhaps old attachments are what he is trying to escape?

I don't even see him as the main image of the card, more as a minor detail. It's the flying particles and the non-Euclidean geometry that dominates it for me, visually and emotionally.

swimming in tarot said:
And, smack me for this, but I also see in his nudity a visual pun. You will recall that many decks feature an eclipsed moon on this card? Well...there's the "moon" facing us, and it's "eclipsed" (in negative).

<laughter> Nope, not going to smack you for that. You'd probably enjoy it too much. Photographs have been used a lot in negative in this deck, it works for me as a kind of mood-atering thing.
 

Leo62

swimming in tarot said:
And, smack me for this, but I also see in his nudity a visual pun. You will recall that many decks feature an eclipsed moon on this card? Well...there's the "moon" facing us, and it's "eclipsed" (in negative).
LOL, I love that :D A "mooning" 8 of cups - well that would definitely make me want to walk away ;)

The parallel with nuclear decay - the separation of a particle or cluster of particles from an atomic nucleus - emphasises the aspect of the 8 of cups that is about separation in the literal and psychological sense. It's about leaving something or someone as a conscious, positive choice. It's not running away, it's walking away.
 

Attachments

  • QuantumCards-44.jpg
    QuantumCards-44.jpg
    11 KB · Views: 597