Welcome to Tarot for Scholars, a resource that helps you weave the deep wisdom of tarot into your daily life and work. In each post, we offer reflections and prompts for exploring your own inner world and unlocking the unique creative power of your scholarship.
8 of Cups
About this card
Progress within an emotional experience. Choosing to walk away from a stable situation, either to gain a broader perspective or to relinquish a situation that has run its course. Conscious detachment; embrace of liminality. An eclipse that marks the end of one storyline and beginning of another. Moving toward wisdom may look like loss on a short timescale, but on a longer timescale, its significance can be revealed.
Other interpretations
Margy’s cards, clockwise from top left: Radiant Tarot; New Chapter Tarot; Cosmic Slumber Tarot; Shining Tribe Tarot; Elemental Tarot; Navigators Tarot of the Mystic Sea; Spolia Tarot; Tarot of the Spirit.
Helen’s cards, clockwise from top left: Moon & Stars Tarot; Light Seer’s Tarot; Japaridze Tarot; Canes Arcanae; Star Spinner Tarot; Muse Tarot; Tarot of Mystical Moments; Forest of Enchantment Tarot.
Questions and prompts
Are you in an 8 of Cups situation right now, or have you been recently? A situation that may seem relatively stable, but is no longer right for you? How can you recognize when it’s time to walk away, temporarily or permanently?
Can you think of a time in your work when you experienced a loss that, in the long run, turned out to be a gain? How did you come to that new understanding?
What strategies or relationships help you stay attuned to your own emotional experience, which is present (however latent or invisible) in every situation and area of life, including your scholarship? How, today, can you act on your awareness of your emotional undercurrent (or overcurrent)?
Thanks for reading Tarot for Scholars! Drop us a heart or restack if you like, or better yet, comment and let us know how you’re using tarot in your scholarly life. 💫
Yours in scholarship,
HELEN SWORD is a poet, scholar, award-winning teacher, and founder of the WriteSPACE, an international writing community with members in 30+ countries. Her research-based books, articles, and online tools empower scholarly writers to write more clearly, confidently, prolifically, and with greater pleasure.
Visit Helen’s website here.
MARGY THOMAS is the creator of ScholarShape, a body of work dedicated to elucidating the patterns of Story-Argument across genres, disciplines, and life itself. Through services and DIY resources, Margy helps scholars use Story-Argument patterns to design their work — and to find its deeper meaning and higher purpose.
Visit Margy’s website here.
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