To see the world in a grain of sand… hold infinity in the palm of your hand.”
— William Blake
Apathy, boredom, disengagement, ignored opportunities, dissatisfaction emotional fatigue
Overview
The Rose-colored goggles are ripped off.
Having expectations leaves room for disappointment. This is why all spiritualist preach living in the present. If don’t daydream of a future with someone, there is no expectation to be let down from.
Perhaps you’ve seen someone’s true colors; that the picture you painted of them in your head isn’t what you imagined. They say you don’t know true love until you’ve see your partner in hard times, sick, or grieving. You jumped the gun on what you thought was love, only to realize you couldn’t handle them at their worst.
Symbolism
A man sits under a tree on a hilltop met with the blue sky. Before him are there cups, and his arms are crossed, clearly displeased by his options. A disembodied hand offers him a fourth cup, which he seems not to notice due to his grievances with the other three involved.
The hand is said to be symbolic of a blessing the universe is offering. But in his displeasure, the man is choosing to sulk over the three chalices instead of seizing the new opportunity.
Meaning
Ignored opportunity
You are too busy crying over spilled milk in order to see the next new thing coming your way. While you are lost in what you don’t have, you aren’t willing to consider there is something new— something better presenting itself to you. This is a gift from the universe, it will cover more ground than you lost in your journey.
For the sake of everything you deserve, grab that goblet with both hands. What you lost doesn’t hold as much gravity as everything you stand to gain.
Dissatisfaction
Remember what we said about expectations? They are a recipe for disappointment. You are dissatisfied with your current reality and too stuck in the mindset to actually do anything about it. Take a deep breath, count your losses. Now understand everything you have to gain by breaking out of your comfort zone.
You’ve already lost so much, there’s nothing more you can possibly lose.
Emotional Fatigue
You couldn’t imagine holding another chalice, you feel as though you are already experiencing a drought trying to keep all the ones you have filled. This one is different though, this cup will help you fill the others. Be hopeful in this new opportunity, there are greater things to come.
The Come down
After the soul is lit up by the establishment of love and affection, is the come down. Now you’re wondering if the pedestal you put him on was built too high. It’s not that you’re reconsidering the relationship, but things are coming back to reality. Work needs to be done, life has to go on. In order to get to forever with another person, there is work that needs to be done.
Refusing the commemorate the good times
The last piece of confetti hits the floor, and the parties over. It was great, long, you’re tired and smiling in your intoxication. The next morning you’ll wake up, hung over still in your party clothes, and look around at disarray. The bright colored solo-cups and confetti hit your brain like lightning, the migraine you were waiting for comes and so does the vomit from the smell of spilled alcohol on the rug. Some one’s going to have to clean up.
The world spins without you
This card is the apathy, withdrawal, and hazy state you feel after the parties over and you have to clean. Only this party was in the form of a relationship, which requires work. It’s the time after all the first romantics are over, and life starts to go back to normal. There can be disassociation when you realize that while the two of you existed in your own universe, that the world around you continued to go on. The dreams you were chasing before the love came crashing in come back into play. Your image on this person isn’t the same as it was when it first met; their flaws start to show, bad habits, their obsessions and addictions. The two of you will be able to observe the natural personalities of one another now, as things relax and fall into comfort.
Boredom, stagnancy
This card symbolizes boredom and stagnancy while the things that only time can manifest are nurtured. It can also mean that a situation did not turned out exactly as you imagined, and you are disenchanted by the experience. A decision needs to be made on whether whatever is disappointing you will break this or be tolerated. This can also say that help will come when you least expect it to, like a gift from the heavens.
The Four of Cups Reversed
The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”
— Marcel Proust
Renewed interest, emotional awakening, re-engaging
Overview
I like to think of the more negative cards to have the more positive meanings as opposed to the delay of a situation. Though that’s just trying to be optimistic in my readings.
In the reversed position, a card can be the opposite of its upright meaning, or it can be the development of such. With something as internally obscure as emotions, I feel as though it is more the liberating aspect of the negative cards, than it is the delay of onset of an emotion. Though the interpretation is up to the reader, and your intuition.
Alternatively in the reversed position, the man ends up with the cup presented to him right in front of his face. Perhaps you changed your mind, and healed your heart enough to take the cup presented to you after all.
Meaning
Letting go — Live and learn
So your favorite person became a life lesson, this is the unfortunate reality of life sometimes. It took sometime for you to get over it, but now you’re finally seeing the other side of heartbreak. Things are overall improving, and you are starting to see the light in all of it.
Consider everything you’ve learned from this opportunity and don’t be afraid to grasp the goblet offered to you with both hands this time.
Renewed interest
It’s not over until it’s over. If you’re highly intuitive and stuck on the feeling like something hasn’t fully ended for you yet, you’re probably not wrong. Someone is about to express a renewed interest in you.
They’ve been looking for you in everyone they meet.
Re-engaging
Subsequently, this means that you are resuming engagement with another person. They reached out, coincidence, or time and place brought you two back together. What ever refused to die between you two has reignited as if there was no time or distance between where you are now and where you left off.
Emotional awakening
At last, you see the light. What you left in the past, was meant to be in the past. Your eyes and heart are opening to the fact that this situation was necessary for your growth. Without that person you would not be who you are today. Despite everything you went through, you’re better for it and now understand what you are and are not willing to deal with in your personal affairs.
