Transcript

[0:00] Hello, and welcome to My Tiny Tarot Practice. I'm Amelia Hruby, and on this podcast, I share my journey exploring the tarot card by card, starting with each suit of the Minor Arcana.

Today's card is the Four of Cups. In the Rider-Waite-Smith edition of the tarot, the Four of Cups features a person sitting, legs and arms crossed at the base of a tree.
They're on a sort of field or hill of grass. In front of them are three cups sitting on the ground and they appear to be gazing at those cups while beside them, out of the sky, there's a cloud and a hand extended from the cloud that is holding a fourth cup right next to their head, right almost in front of them or right off to the side of their gaze.
But this person is not looking at that cup, It's instead looking at the cups on the ground.

[0:58] When I went to my favorite books to learn how they interpret this card, I found that Rachel Pollack in 78 Degrees of Wisdom sees it as a card about the passivity of the cups, and the way that passivity can lead to apathy or boredom even.
Similarly, Jessa Crispin interprets it as refusing to receive our revelation, as refusing to tend to the gifts that have arrived because they may not be what we expect. And I really appreciate Jessica Dore's interpretation in her book, Tarot for Change, where she says that the Four of Cups is about, quote, the human problem that we've forgotten how to listen.

[1:54] I don't tend to interpret this card as one of such apathy, dullness, boredom. I think I overall have a generally uplifting view of the tarot. But I do think that within this card, we see someone who is shut down and who is perhaps being offered exactly what they need, and this cup extended divinely out out of the sky, but instead this person is focused on what they already have.
And I don't think that has to be inherently bad. Sometimes we have to focus on what is right in front of us to make it through a challenging period.
But I think that the wisdom of this card is in the suggestion that if we just look up and look around, we might actually receive wisdom or healing that will take us somewhere else, that will transform our situation, that will invite us into a new relationship, with ourselves, with the world, that can shift our emotional state.

[2:58] And so just focusing on the present, and I think in this figure whose arms are crossed and legs are crossed, a pretty closed off relationship to the present, perhaps even to the past, looking at those cups that are already on the ground.
When we have that relationship to the world, we're not necessarily open to creative, innovative ways of thinking or of feeling, this being the cups, most likely it's about feeling.
I think when we're not open to that, then we can't experience the transformation.
We can't shepherd in change. We can't create anew.

[3:38] And again, not every moment has to be about that, but I think when I pull the Four of Cups in a reading, I'm always asking myself if I have shut down answers or ideas or possibilities or opportunities that might be right there if I just opened my eyes or shifted my gaze.
With the Four of Cups, we're invited to consider if we're feeling stuck in any way, and if we might simply be able to shift our perspective and shift our emotional state in the process.

Thank you so much for listening to my tiny tarot practice. If you enjoyed this episode and want to go deeper with any of the texts or tarot interpreters that I mentioned, you can head to the link in the show notes.

I have a bookshop there where I've curated a list of tarot books, decks, and other fun things that can help you learn from the folks I'm learning from as I explore the tarot. If you make a purchase through that link, I'll receive a small affiliate payment that helps me keep this podcast going, and you'll receive some amazing tarot books and decks. I hope that this episode helps you open your eyes, shift your gaze, and transform your feelings. Thank you for being here.