King of Cups

King! Of! Cups!

Knight of Pentacles

Check it out, a knight! I like getting the knights because there's so damn much room for interpretation with them. They have both negative and positive traits, depending on where they appear in the reading, and they're so exemplary of the brash, young qualities in people that I like so much. And they're such wonderful examples of the traits found in Earth signs.

And now, a useful chart:
Unwavering/Stubborn
Cautious/Unadventurous
Thorough/Obsessive
Realistic/Pessimistic
Hard-Working/Grinding

So, on the positive side, this is the kind of person you'd want to see on your side. He's hard-working, determined, loyal, and thorough. If you're stuck in the middle of a problem, call upon him for aid, and he'll get you through it no matter what. On the negative side, he can be an extremely stubborn workaholic who never sees the point to anything aside from work and domesticity. He will never, ever admit that he's wrong, especially when he actually is mistaken.

When he appears, you need to ask yourself whether his energy is hurting or helping you at the moment. For me, I feel that his energy is needed, at least due to the jobless situation in which I seem to be stuck. I get the message here: it's high time that I start to work harder. Tomorrow, I suppose, I'll drop off another resume. That is, after I get a good night's sleep.

Four of Swords

At first glance, this appears to be a sort of foreboding card. It depicts a knight's tomb, one sword held over his chest, three swords hanging on the wall. But despite macabre appearances, this card is actually... rather pleasant. I know I've drawn it before, I believe for a friend, and I was just as surprised then as I am now that this card isn't about death and loneliness, but contemplation, repose, and quiet preparation.

All the cards of the swords suit can stand for some kind of challenge. This is supremely helpful when drawing cards, and you find yourself remembering the feelings the card is associated with but not exactly how to interpret them. Because of this, the Four of Swords isn't entirely positive, despite its rather peaceful energy. It's challenging you to slow down, rest, and shut the goddamn hell up.

I can safely say that I didn't entirely follow the suggestion of this card. I stayed up late when I should have gone to bed early, and now I'm tired as hell because of it.

Ace of Pentacles (repeat)

Filler. I can't believe I skipped a day yesterday. Didn't want to make it two in a row. More after I've woken up.

*

Anyway. It appears that I drew this card once before, on 2/26/08. How recently! I didn't even notice. And once again, I've drawn it on a day that I applied to a job. This time at Boulder Books, another of the big used and new bookstores around town. I'd much rather work here than at the other place, if only because the other place sells really, deeply crappy books. It claims to have a very large selection. It does. Mostly of romance novels and Left Behind books. So.

I really hope the prosperous force of the Ace of Pentacles gives me a hand here. The guy I turned my application into said that they have a generally high turnover rate, so hopefully someone will see my application and freaking hire me.

Come on Pentacles! Help a girl out!

Ten of Cups

The card of the happy family. The Rider-Waite deck shows a couple with their arms around each other, staring at a beautiful rainbow filled with golden cups as their children play nearby. The Aquarian deck depicts a man and a woman looking at each other under a rainbow, which is coming out of a cup. I'm going to assume that this means they're gay for each other. It seems like a nice, harmonious card, perhaps representing fidelity or bliss. Judging from the artwork, it's probably the minor arcana equivalent of the Lovers.

Joy, peace, and family are the keywords for this card, so I was pretty much on the ball with equivocating it to the Lovers. But I think it's probably pretty close to the Ten of Pentacles, which is another domestic harmony sort of card, albeit more linked with achievement than inner peace. Maybe I'm hitting on a theme for the tens? It can be about calling a truce or making peace, representing an end to any hostility in one's life. It can also signal a time of blessing coming up, in which your ego is harmonizing with your id or something.

A time of blessing. Oh I fucking hope so. I applied at this dream of a bookstore today, so I hope the Ten of Cups is saying that the joy coming my way is getting this damn job. Oh I hope I hope.

I'll close with this, which is what I'm really interested in for this card:

"In readings, this card often signals a time of abundant blessings. It tells you that you can reach for the fulfillment you deserve, and it will come to you. Look for ways to realize joy and create peace. You may find the key to happiness in your family. Your family is the group of people you are attached to emotionally - for better or worse! If there is trouble in your family right now, work to restore harmony. The time is right for greater closeness."

Eight of Cups

It's a damn depressing card, I'll tell you that. The image on it lets you know that what's coming isn't pretty, too, showing a cloaked figure heading off alone into the night, eight cups stacked behind him and an empty road ahead of him. Strangely, the night sky is white instead of black, and the departing man's cloak has become the road. Without checking on the meaning, I can see loneliness, weariness, a long and arduous journey, or perhaps a choice to leave it all behind.

I hit on two of the keywords, at least. Weariness, moving on, and search for a deeper meaning are the words that can help pinpoint the meaning to this card. It's about the approaching ending. To what, is unclear. It could apply to relationships, to friendships, situations, or ways of life.

I'm having trouble putting this into words, so once again, I'm turning to my main source for help.

"Moving on can mean a physical change such as leaving a job, location or relationship. It can also mean an inner change - releasing old patterns, especially those that have dominated our thoughts and emotions... Sometimes moving on can mean searching for a deeper truth or reality. One day we wake up and realize that we have been asleep in our own lives - living a dream that no longer satisfies.

Some changes can be wearying. Endings are not always easy. One of the signs of a readiness to leave is lack of energy. When you feel tired and dispirited, you know that something is wrong, and it's time for a new direction. Reexamine your life and your priorities. You will find where in your life you need to move on."

This last paragraph does ring true. I'm tired and dispirited a lot of the time. I don't know where to go or what to do, and everything seems worthless. I need to get out of this situation. I need to get a job, start leaving the apartment, and get some friends. As long as I feel like a moon circling around the planetary body of my partner, I'm not going to be happy again.

I need to get a life.

Page of Pentacles

Pages are smarmy. There, I said it. This might be the first page I've ever pulled, but my first impression is that they're all preachy, smarmy kids. Yeah, take it.

My guess from this card is that Pages are meant to be pedantic. They're here to teach you a lesson about what you can gain by following the qualities of the suit in question. In this case, the Page represents the fruits of hard work, practicality, and frugality. It's telling you to have an effect, be prosperous, be practical, and be trustworthy/trusting and all the rewards of the suit of the body will fall into your sweaty, work-hardened lap.

In readings, it can indicate that an opening that will bring enrichment, comfort, trust, or the chance to make your dreams real will appear soon. God, if only. It can also represent a young or young at heart person whose interactions with you involve stability, safety, commitment, material needs, and trust. It can also imply that this moment in your life is suffused with material enjoyment, that you should revel in the earthly delights of your skills, possessions, or body with the abandon of a child.

I'm not sure what this means for me today. I did a few things, I suppose, but mostly I wasted time and indulged. This could be a part of what the card is telling me, but it's main meaning is that of the rewards of hard work, which I don't do a lot of at all. But I guess I did come to the conclusion that cooking isn't so bad today... hm. I don't know. Is this the card of earthly delights, or is it the card of acting practically? Is it another person in my life? Is it me?

Strength

Strength is a complicated card. It's a complicated feeling. Being strong isn't about stoicism or ignoring taunts or being able to bench press a truck. To tell you the truth, I don't know what it's entirely about. There's a softness to it. And that's reflected in the card. It isn't a flashy card, like the Chariot. It's something deeper than that.

My deck shows a man in heavy armor facing the reader, a long-nosed dog sitting faithfully in front of him. The Rider-Waite deck, which I believe conveys the meaning of the card far more fully, depicts a woman easing open the jaws of a lion. Her arms aren't powerful, they're thin like mine, and she's still able to open the lion's mouth without being bitten herself. I think that's what strength is all about.

Strength, patience, compassion, and soft control are the keywords to remember.

"Card 8 will appear in a reading when its qualities are needed. It can be a reminder not to despair or give up. You have the inner strength to endure and triumph. If you are pushing too hard, you need to withdraw for the moment and be patient. If other people or circumstances are driving you crazy, remember the strength that comes with love and forbearance. These will see you through the hardest moments."

I don't think I have much power at the moment to describe how much it means to me that this card appeared today. I must have shuffled the deck around twenty times before I was satisfied. There are some days that I doubt these cards. About half the time, I think. There are some days, most of the other half, when I feel the need to remark on how well they correspond to my current mood. And there are rare days like today when nothing else could have been more appropriate.

Give me the strength to mold myself softly. I don't want to look back on today with regret.

Seven of Rods

Filler. I'm going to bed.

Man, I suck at doing the same thing every day. Unless it's wasting time on the internet. :)

*

Aggression! Defiance! Conviction! What the hell is it with all the manly cards I've been getting? I wonder sometimes if the cards are trying to send a message to me, to warn me about something or encourage me to go a certain direction. If I take that at face value, this card is encouraging me to take a stand against something. Probably myself.

The figure on the card is holding a long staff in front of him, apparently ready to ward off attacks. The other six staffs are standing aside, ready to be used if the first staff should break. I can't stop laughing at this guy's mustache. Seriously, the Aquarian deck is like a mustache haven.

Ahem. Anyhow. This card is about aggression and defiance because they're two sides of the same coin. You attack, your enemy defends, you defend, your enemy attacks, both sticking to their own convictions, both willing to do whatever it takes to get their points across. This card usually indicates some struggle that you're involved in, and it asks you whether this battle is really worth fighting. On the surface, it encourages you to fight to the last, and on the underside, it asks you whether your position is really justified.

I always try to ask myself whether I'm really correct in any fight I'm involved in, and even though it's grating sometimes, I try to give in when I've found out that I'm wrong. I'd like to think that the Seven of Rods is my constant companion, in that way, though I admit that I don't always stand up to that ideal. Ask my boyfriend; I'm sure he'll be glad to tell you just how unfair I can be.

But anyway. More and more I'm finding that each of these cards has an important question of self-evaluation in store for the learner. It's getting tough as I go along to keep admitting to these flaws of mine and keep trying to answer the questions that these cards ask, especially when I'm feeling drained as I am. But as this card tells me, if I really believe in what I'm doing, I've got to fight to the last. Hopefully, I'll be able to stick to that.

Two of Cups

Damn, I missed my leap year post. I was really excited about doing it, too, but now it's after midnight and it'll look like there wasn't a February 29th at all. Let it be written that it's still February 29th for me, since I haven't yet gone to sleep. I just had a busy day, is all. Now, to business.

The Two of Cups is an easy enough card to understand. It's the minor arcana equivalent to the lovers, and it looks like it. Two people, a man and a woman, gaze at each other over two chalices, apparently lost to anything else but each other. Aw, so romantic. It's a card that people in relationships want to see, for it means connection and attraction, but there's another side to the card that doesn't have much to do with lovers. It's also the card of truces. If you've been having a long disagreement with someone, this card is a sign that it's time to throw in the towel and shake hands. Heal that severed relationship, bring things together, solve problems, etc. I like it. Essentially, it's the card of the deepening connection, the union between people.

I know exactly what the Two of Cups means for me today. I went on a "date," as it were, with my boyfriend. Yes, sometimes I call him that, even if it makes me sound fifteen. It was nice. We went to the Aquarium, looked at fish, touched rays, and were surprised by tigers. We even went out to dinner. He took care of me when I suddenly came down with being sick, too. I feel like we renewed something, a little. That's the thing, isn't it? You can't take love for granted. It has to be made again, every day. I've been missing that.

Look at me blather on.

But I can't forget about the downside to the card. Sometimes, it means that you've shut yourself off to the world in the name of love. And given time, that can end up driving you apart. So be careful and consider well what this card means when it comes up. It's unhealthy to shut out the world. Even if you're doing it with someone you love.