When you draw the Eight of Cups, you have temporal (or worldly) problems and because of these problems, your emotional state is grim, sad, and despairing.
Okay, so you have problems such as a wayward child who is falling behind in school or a spouse who is unemployed or you have a job/career that is going nowhere. These problems are real and not just made up…well, welcome to the club!
Who doesn’t have problems? Problems are a factual, necessary, and vital part of the human condition. Accept it.
But in this emotional state that the Eight of Cups illustrates, you are more likely to look at others and contrast their lives to yours thinking that those people are so lucky! And then you start to feel sorry for yourself. You may even be spiralling into a full‑blown depression and the resulting inaction that is a precursor to total darkness and suffering.
This card is a warning for you to stop this dangerous slide into darkness that you are on.
The first thing to remember (and I know that this is hard to do) is that you are responsible for your own happiness—no one else is. And truly, you do not want it any other way.
Next, as mentioned previously, is to understand that problems, heart‑ache, and troubles are part of the human condition. They are not going to go away. And truly, you do not want life to be perfect. Perfection is not what we humans are made for. When we seek perfection, we will never be happy. As Michael J. Fox has said, “I try for excellence, not perfection. Perfection belongs to God.”
Finally, you need to see that although you have every right to feel sorry for yourself, you also have an obligation to seek happiness because “the purpose of life,” as the Dalai Lama says, “is to be happy.” But happiness as he also says, “Is not ready-made.” In other words, we need to be the principal actor or mover in our own happiness.
Typically, when we are in this emotional state that the Eight of Cups represents, we forget these three lessons and thus, we need to be reminded that we are still fundamentally okay. Our life is still ours to live and experience. The future still can be bright for us and others.
All this realization is the fundamental workings of faith. Is our faith strong enough to kick in and see us through? Yes, it is. As Jesus said, ““Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” Matthew 17:20-21.
So carry on, friends. Through thick and thin there are few things as important as faith.