Bohemian Gothic Tarot
EIGHT OF CUPS
Lighter or more conventional meanings
Taking the next, necessary steps in life * Moving on - you need to do it, but it's a sad moment * Changing things, even though it's not easy * Moving home, country, or job.Darker, shadow or more hidden meaning
Deciding to go through a difficult period in order to reach longer-term security * Moving away from an oppressive, depressing situation * Trying to escape from negative cycles and habits - this takes courage.This is one of the quietest and least obviously Gothic or horrifying cards in this deck. It simply shows a beautiful young woman, wreathed in flowers, walking up a staircase and turning, for a moment, to look back. The sheer size of the building in which she walks is daunting and its huge vaulted ceilings dwarf her. Nevertheless, she only looks slightly questioning, and not afraid.
The archway in front of her is rather fearsome. On either side of it there are large urns, reminiscent of those found in graveyards, and above is a skull. The arch leads to a long, dark corridor. However, there is, as the saying goes "light at the end of the tunnel", quite literally in this case as we can see the glimmer of a window. If this young woman can be brave enough to follow her path, she will soon come to that window, which seems to symbolise both hope and the possibility of relief from the oppressive surroundings. Does she have the courage and the will to do it?
The Eight of Cups is about times when we need to walk away from someone or something in our life that we know is not good for us. It could indicate that we're being held back, or we're bored, depressed or stuck in a rut. But maybe there is a stronger, more urgent motivation for leaving behind our current way of living; some form of abuse, or physical or psychological danger. Whatever the reason, this card reminds us that though the transitional period may be difficult, or even emotionally painful, it will be worth it. It urges us to find the confidence to do what we know must be done; there are better times ahead if we make this move.
When we interpret the Bohemian Gothic card we see a darker nuance which is about the sheer daring that will be needed to take this next step - the card implies that there might be real threats to overcome and that we will first need to go further into danger in order to pass through into lighter, easier times. If this interpretation applies to a reading, then the message is clear; while it might take courage and fortitude to go forward there is promise of a final escape from the current situation and a much a brighter future beckons - be brave!
Some further ways to consider this card
We can't know this woman's story, but can you imagine what it might be? Is the castle her home or is she a visitor, or perhaps a new wife who has recently moved there?Compare this card to others that show women inside a house or castle, for example the Seven of Cups, the Queen of Pentacles and the Ten of Cups. Which of them looks most comfortable in her surroundings?
it was a large and melancholy mansion, with signs of long neglect upon it; great wooden shutters, in the old fashion, were barred, outside, across the windows; grass, and even nettles, were growing thick on the courtyard, and a thin moss streaked the timber beams; the plaster was discoloured by time and weather, and bore great russet and yellow stains. The gloom was increased by several grand old trees that crowded close about the house.
- Sheridan Le Fanu, "Dickon the Devil", London Society.
My earliest recollections of a school-life, are connected with a large, rambling, Elizabethan house, in a misty-looking village of England, where were a vast number of gigantic and gnarled trees, and where all the houses were excessively ancient.Usually, the scene is set for a haunting by something horrible and mysterious that has happened in these dwellings:
- Edgar Allan Poe, "William Wilson", Tales of Mystery and Imagination.
It was known as the "Spook House." That it was tenanted by evil spirits, visible, audible and active, no one in all that region doubted any more than he doubted what he was told of Sundays by the travelling preacher. Its owner's opinion of the matter was unknown; he and his family had disappeared one night and no trace of them had ever been found. They left everything - household goods, clothing, provisions, the horses in the stable, the cows in the field, the negroes in the quarters - all as it stood; nothing was missing - except a man, a woman, three girls, a boy and a babe! It was not altogether surprising that a plantation where seven human beings could be simultaneously effaced and nobody the wiser should be under some suspicion.In some stories, like the unforgettable "The Beckoning Fair One" by Oliver Onions, we never do find out who the ghost is, or the full history of what's happened in the hideously spiteful house. In others, and that most famous of Gothic tales, "The Fall of the House of Usher", is a fine example, the story centres on atrocious events that will, we feel, be the source of vile hauntings for years to come. The House of Usher is also the quintessential "building as living entity" that we find implied in some modern tales such as The Amityville Horror (Jay Anson) and The Shining (Stephen King) and stated specifically in The Haunting of Hill House (Shirley Jackson) - here we are told that it's not merely a matter of phantoms that inhabit the building but that the place has somehow acquired a malevolent and "unkind" personality of its own.
- Ambrose Bierce, The Spook House, Present at a Hanging and Other Ghost Stories.
I know not how it was - but, with the first glimpse of the building, a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit... There was an iciness, a sinking, a sickening of the heart - an unredeemed dreariness of thought which no goading of the imagination could torture into aught of the sublime. What was it - I paused to think - what was it that so unnerved me in the contemplation of the House of Usher?In addition to being forbidding, decrepid, ancient and with a dubious history, such Gothic habitations tend to be overly large, dwarfing their inhabitants and emphasising their human weakness and vulnerability. We read, from the very first 18th century stories, descriptions of impossibly tall vaulted ceilings, high towers, looming, unscalable walls and brooding arches and buttresses. In these cavernous settings, human concerns seem trivial and people's powerlessness against horror is made all the more obvious.
- Edgar Allan Poe, "The Fall of the House of Usher", Tales of Mystery and Imagination.
"`Is it the ghost?' `The ghost! no, no,' said Diego, and his hair stood on end - 'It is a giant, I believe; he is all clad in armour, for I saw his foot and part of his leg, and they are as large as the helmet below in the court.' As he said these words, my Lord, we heard a violent motion and the rattling of armour, as if the giant was rising, for Diego has told me since that he believes the giant was lying down, for the foot and leg were stretched at length on the floor. Before we could get to the end of the gallery, we heard the door of the great chamber clap behind us, but we did not dare turn back to see if the giant was following us - yet, now I think on it, we must have heard him if he had pursued us - but for Heaven's sake, good my Lord, send for the chaplain, and have the castle exorcised, for, for certain, it is enchanted."Some of the most famous horror stories exploit the contrast of cosy, comforting, human-scaled domestic settings with those huge, decayed grandiose buildings that are entirely otherworldly and full of threat. Much of the shock effect of such pieces comes from the clash of two such different worlds. Here, for example, is Mina, (heroine of Bram Stoker's Dracula) happily discussing her home-town of Whitby;
- Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto.
The weather had been somewhat sultry, but not to any degree uncommon in the month of August. Saturday evening was as fine as was ever known, and the great body of holiday-makers laid out yesterday for visits to Mulgrave Woods, Robin Hood's Bay, Rig Mill, Runswick, Staithes, and the various trips in the neighbourhood of Whitby.In stark contrast, we have her fiance Jonathan Harker describing his first sight of Dracula's Castle during his trip to Transylvania:
We kept on ascending, with occasional periods of quick descent, but in the main always ascending. Suddenly I became conscious of the fact that the driver was in the act of pulling up the horses in the courtyard of a vast ruined castle, from whose tall black windows came no ray of light, and whose broken battlements showed a jagged line against the sky.There is a lurking sense, in these stories, that once anyone enters such a building they are almost certainly doomed; escape becomes harder the longer anyone is under the influence of the place. Jonathan Harker has to resort to a dangerous climb down a sheer castle wall in order to get away from Dracula's ghastly family seat whereas in The Shining, The Haunting of Hill House and The Beckoning Fair One the central character is eventually so totally possessed that they die and, by implication, take their own place among the supernatural phenomena. The cycle of the malevolent building, half-alive itself and energised by spirits and phantoms, can be refreshed by its new victim and begin again once more.
