Today's Draw: Four of Cups from the Victorian Romantic. Does it feel like something's missing in your life? Is it something you can't quite pin down? What if the key to that feeling was found not in what's missing, but what's present in your life?
We had this exact card just a few months ago. At that time, I challenged you to ask yourself some pretty tough questions about your life. If you're curious, the post was posted on 10/17/12, but dated 10/18. I won't repeat any of that here, as I have another take on the card.
To begin with, this card from this deck is one of my favorite cards. The gentleman is surrounded by lovely ladies, he's at a party, yet something is missing. Sometimes this is a card indicating boredom, but more often than not it's about dissatisfaction.
I'm sure all of us feel like "something's missing" at some time or another. We might even feel that way frequently. It can indicate a whole bunch of things covered in the post from last October. But one thing I think it also covers is our connection to spirit...or our connection to whatever we were before we came here.
It's hard to be a human. We come here and we're disconnected from that part of us that is divine. Some believe that, as a race, we once knew, but forgot. But it's like there's something hardwired in us that knows we're so much greater than our everyday lives suggest...and we just can't seem to grasp it long enough to make it last. We see glimpses of it through "coincidence" and "miracles" and "spiritual epiphanies". But those are passing moments and we're left, once again, with our humanness.
I was talking just today with someone about being human. I debate sometimes about whether we're here to just be human and have this experience with no pressure placed on it. Or whether we're here to raise ourselves up as humans so that one day the whole race may fuse with our collective divinity. Or some such notion. So maybe we're here to be schlumps. Or maybe we're here to find our divinity. Or maybe we're just here.
Anyway, today when I saw this card, I thought the man had lost connection to his own divinity...and to the larger God around him. And the advice I had for him is this—gratitude. Look at all the abundance around him. But he can't be happy within it. Because he's not grateful for it. He's not grateful for his health, his good looks, his friends, his opportunities. If he were, it would be hard to stand in the midst of all of that missing something. He's focusing on what he doesn't have instead of what he does.
We're all allowed moments of that. If we're in mourning over some loss, it's completely understandable. But there are times we feel this way when we have no good excuse. And the answer is gratitude. Our higher, divine selves understand the power of gratitude, but it's something we often forget as humans. So the next time you feel like something's missing in your life, consider that the only thing that's missing is your gratitude for all you do have.
Weekend Reading: Four of Cups from the Rohrig Tarot—Luxury. Despite being a really cool card with a great word, "luxury", on it, this Four of Cups actually warns about the dangers of getting too much of a good thing. What it means is that, after the high of riches and good times comes an inevitable crash. The "crashed state" may actually be nothing worse than your normal state, but after the high, it can feel pretty crappy. So we should definitely have a great time this weekend and enjoy it to its fullest. In fact, we get an extra hour of fabulosity this weekend, adding to the goodness, abundance and luxury. But remember to keep everything in perspective. Monday will come and it will suck. But no more than any other Monday...unless you let it.
Today's Draw: Four of Cups from the Victorian Romantic (Second Edition). How long has it been since you've taken stock of how much you've changed over the past few years? Does it feel like something is missing in your life? What would it *really* take for you to be happy?
The Four of Cups is about boredom or a lull in your life. But the Victorian Romantic brings a nuance to the card's traditional meaning that really rings true. See, the guy is at a party, he's got beautiful women hanging off him and, yet, he's feeling dead inside.
It's about having everything you want and still not being happy. That could happen because of depression or because you're someone who likes the process of creating something in your life, but feel restless when the work is done. It could be for a lot of reasons. But more often than not, I'll bet, it's because the things you want aren't the things that make you happy. Or things that once made you happy no longer do so.
I think we all feel that way now and again. Yesterday we talked a bit about looking back over our year. But in a way, today's card is asking us to take stock of who we are overall. This is no easy task, because it means answering questions like:
- How have your values changed in the past five years or so and what in your life has not changed in kind?
- What do you believe about who you are and what you deserve, how has that changed and do you act in alignment with those changes?
- What practices or actions no longer feel genuine or comfortable in your life?
- What drains your energy and what fuels it?
- Do you ever find yourself doing something you used to not question, and now you wonder why you're doing it?
- Are there behaviors or actions or attitudes you're ashamed of...or feel it's time to let go of?
- What is missing in your life?
These are just a few of the kinds of questions that are good to take time to ruminate on. You all know someone who hasn't changed their hair style in 20 years. I know this because I'm that person...haha. And we tend to do with our lives what some of us do with our hair...we tend to pick a course of action and stay on it until the bitter end.
We rarely take the time to proactively examine who we are, who we want to be and what to clear out of our life to get it. It's like spring cleaning. But instead, we allow cobwebs and clutter to accumulate within our spirit and end up like the guy who has everything but contentment. So if you're kind of feeling that way, as I am, maybe take a look at who you are today and start living for that person instead.
We had this exact card just a few months ago. At that time, I challenged you to ask yourself some pretty tough questions about your life. If you're curious, the post was posted on 10/17/12, but dated 10/18. I won't repeat any of that here, as I have another take on the card. 
