☽︎Sky and Signs

Tarot · Cups

Eight of Cups

Eight of Cups: A man with a walking staff goes away from eight stacked cups under the moon, towards mountains in the distance.

The picture

A man with a walking staff goes away from eight stacked cups under the moon, towards mountains in the distance.

The meaning

The cups are still standing, but something in them is missing for the man. The tradition reads the Eight of Cups as moving on, a search for deeper meaning and a farewell freely chosen. It stands for the courage to leave behind something that no longer fulfils. He goes quietly and by night, not in anger.

Reversed

Reversed, it is read as hesitating to leave, or returning to something you had already meant to leave.

In love

In love it is read as a longing for more depth, or a farewell that has ripened over a long time.

At work

At work it stands for a change of course when a task no longer gives meaning.

As your card of the day

You can ask yourself today what is missing. Sometimes you have to walk a little way off to find it.

The Eight of Cups stands for the search. A walk on your own may bring clarity today.

Cups belong to water. By tradition they stand for feelings, relationships and whatever moves us inside.

Picture: Pamela Colman Smith, Rider-Waite-Smith tarot, 1909, public domain (Wikimedia Commons).