Eight of Cups

Like certain cards in a Tarot reading, the Eight of Cups is unfortunately easily misconstrued to mean just the pain of letting go. In truth, its meaning is moving on from negative experiences, especially in romantic contexts. These experiences can range from your current partner’s tendency to be late during your dates to heavy and potentially traumatic events such as when you caught them cheating on you with a close friend. Indeed, these events may have caused you to lose faith in love because they were too painful to bear. When you look at the stack of cups in the image, you notice that it’s not finished. In romance, this means accepting the fact that not everything is going to work perfectly or smoothly, and that the best option is to just start over. Whether you will be doing this through breaking up and moving on or going back to the start with your current significant other is up to you. What is important is that you can start over to let yourself heal from the pain and love anew. The same goes for people who are still single. Allowing yourself to move on from toxic exes or crushes who never reciprocated is the first step before you engage in another love affair. This way, you won’t hurt the person whom you’ll love next because you know that no one deserves to be in pain because of love. In other words, you need to hit the reset button and be on the lookout for future blessings.

The reversed order of this card indicates two terrible things. On the one hand, it shows an obsession you can’t let go of, such as your partner in a relationship that is clearly too toxic for the both of you to continue. If you want to retain your relationship with your significant other, then do your best not to get hyper-fixated on things, as this might develop into the obsessions mentioned above and create a rift between you and the person whom you love the most. Try to balance your love and appreciation of someone or something with reality. Do not set impossible wants or needs that involve them, nor should you make them into the center of your life. Keep things moderate and healthy so that your partnership won’t break down as quickly. On the other, it predicts a disaster that might require you to break off the relationship. Both are awful outcomes, but at the end of it all, the best way to deal with an ill omen is to not expect too much and simply move with the ebb and flow of life to prevent further pain. You will need to prepare yourself for the impact of this unfortunate event. If you happened to be in a relationship with your partner for years already, then you will have to accept that time is not definitive of a solid and unbreakable connection. Despite this, do not lose heart and believe that love still has plans for you somehow.

In the financial realm, the Eight of Cups in its upright position represents the value of making tactical retreats and abandoning plans without sentimentality. This means that if you’re in a business or if you’re working on a problem at work if your plans are hitting a snag and no amount of modifying can alter the outcome, you need to do away with them, or else you could face bigger problems. For example, you may have been thinking of launching a new product line that seemed to hold the promise of significant financial and marketing benefits. Unfortunately, for no reason at all, things are not going to plan. Take this as a sign that this is not a good venture, and it would be best to set it aside for a bit or scrap it all over. While letting go of something you’ve worked hard for is unfair and hurtful in all ways, you need to do this for your sake and that of your company and coworkers. Some things are better off as ideas and never to be realized as actual working plans or products. Additionally, it may even become a liability to everyone. There will always be losses in a venture, and regaining the capital doesn’t happen overnight for most businesses. At the rate your idea is going, it will get you closer to bankruptcy than publicity. In general, in order to increase your financial capacity, you must be willing to concede when something is lost and reevaluate your strategies when necessary.

In the reverse position, the Eight of Cups represents the emotional turmoil that comes from having to abandon something you’ve worked on for a long time. This could be a business idea that has been brewing in your head but doesn’t seem to be tenable. While letting your imagination run wild with all the possibilities is fun, it is often overlooked how reality is the anchor on which everything must happen. This is true to whatever you are planning right now, whether it be work promotion, pay raise, or business. The reality that you are living right now doesn't take too kindly to the things you want. It will constantly take and take until you have nothing more left for yourself. This includes even the current chance to make it to success. In the end, it will leave you exhausted as you don't seem to achieve anything despite your work. Unfortunately, this can be something that can cause a lot of angst in the future, but if you find yourself in this position, know that you are not alone. Reach out to your friends and ask them to plan with you. Listen to their advice and consider their advice, especially if you know that these people always have your best interests at heart. This setback is simply territory and wouldn't last forever. You still have time to restart your planning session to make things count and up to your standards. You only really lose in life if you stop trying.