Single Card Reading 6 September 2015 -- Four of Cups (upright)

You open your eyes after a long and restful nap, finding yourself sitting underneath the shade of a tall tree, its leaves drooping down to catch the specks of sunlight before they reach your face. At this time, crossing your legs, there seems to be a stillness around you that is peaceful. Deep in thought, you rest your back upon the tree, digesting the environment that quietly breathes around you. The soft grass underneath, the blue skies above, the solid tree that supports you, everything exists in a tranquil balance. As you consider these things you find yourself watching a single cloud wafting around in that big blue sky. It seems to move to a wind that you cannot feel, and oddly stands out among all the quiet stillness in a stark contrast to your surroundings. To your amazement, the cloud doubles back and winds itself around in the air, then floats down to you in a manner that appears to be a greeting. Too awed to speak, you simply stare at the cloud, and as a moment passes you see a hand, human in appearance, reach from the mist to offer you a golden chalice filled with a liquid that glowed amber in the sunlight. Entranced by its beauty you lean forward, the amber drink dancing in the chalice with pirouettes and leaps of lively delight. A golden gleam catches your eye, and before you lie three chalices, golden and similar in looks to the chalice being offered to you by the extended hand from the cloud. It is almost as if these chalices were gifts, possibly given earlier by the unlikely friend. Though you are tempted by this amber drink, you find that in your heart you know you must remain at your seat, almost as if moving would disturb your soft surroundings enough to destroy the peace and tranquility. Something else bothers you, as if you were meditating on thoughts earlier, and having not reached the conclusion as of yet you decide to continue, loosing interest in the golden cup offered by the magic cloud before you. Soon enough your trance renders you blind to your silent companion, whom still remains just a breath away with a gift in store.

The four of cups has a distinct similarity to the religious retelling of the Buddha's meditation at the Bohdi tree. Here is an individual that is in deep consideration, almost meditation, at the foot of a tree. Because of their focus and intensity of thought, they lack to see the gift of the chalice offered to them, in addition hardly seeing any of the cups at their feet.

When drawn upright, this card can indicate a lack of motivation and enjoyment of life. This can be the result of several circumstances--not wanting to be a part of the status quo, not achieving anything in particular, not providing yourself enough of a challenge to your daily life in order to truly live in accordance with your purpose. Do not fret if this is you, and if you find yourself in this rut, heed the earlier stated advice. Falling into this ravine of productivity and enjoyment is normal, oftentimes experienced multiple times in life. Everything always balances itself in accordance to chaos, so when life happens and you hit a peak or a rut, harmony and other assortments of forces attempt to bring you back to ground zero, often the force of bringing you back down from heaven launching you down a little further than just zero. In physics people call this inertia and friction, in life we call it "the roller coaster."

If indeed you are mixed up in this spell of apathy be aware that there are several ways to cure this and bring you back to your productive and lively self. And you have definitely heard this before--tap back into your center and remind yourself who you are.

Disappointment, a prolonged struggle, constant stress, and a lack of productivity and self expression can sunder you from your inner core of color, personality and style. The part of you that makes you unique, and in no way reflects your human lesser qualities and failings is what powers everything you dream, plan, and create. This fuels your imaginative cycle and jump starts motivation, happiness and contentment in your daily life.

The answer to your struggle lies within the actions of the man in this card--he rejects all worldly distractions in the pursuit of communion with his soul. And I use communion to mean not only involving this great and amazing part of you in your daily activity, but also growing to know who this part of you actually is. Even if you have a pretty good idea, it is good to practice reminding yourself. No doubt there are times when we lose sight of who we are, and instead of loosing yourself in the confusion of opinions and other people, especially in your work and finances, put everything on hold and reach inside and have that conversation with yourself about who you are. And may I remind you, this is the part of you without any external influence, so to get a really good conversation going maybe find a place where you can be alone with yourself without any distractions. There is no need to have interruptions while communing with yourself; this sort of experience needs to happen with more care and significance than your other outward relationships. If you fail to love yourself, and in order for that to happen, know who you are, maintaining relationships beyond that becomes extremely difficult.

But above all other advice I can give you, you must never worry. When something like this happens, it eventually gets better. Even when you have hit absolute rock bottom, there is always plenty of up to do. This stuff is oftentimes predictable, and is repeated and reflected in everything we create. For instance, ever notice how the plot of your favorite movie or book went? Things were okay, and then they got bad (sometimes extremely bad), but they always got better (those of you thinking about horror movies where everyone dies at the end, yes, I would say that the resulting death is much like a relief in the face of the alternative--constant terror and pain). So who knows when things will get better or worse? Nobody. This life you lead is the movie where you are the star, acting out your role as your inner voice dictates it to be. No one can tell you when things get really bad or extremely good, and any degree of worry on your part will not ease the pressure or stress of any situation you are involved with. Maybe having that chat with yourself will. It may be cliche, but the answers to many of your questions lie within you, each ready to present themselves, only when you give yourself the chance.

Have faith in yourself, have hope in your abilities, and never worry--you act out in the realm of harmony, where even when things get really bad, there are sure to be good moments on their way. Good luck and Blessed Be.