Just Walk Away

The 8 of Cups is the card that came to mind on a recent weekend as it represented what we came to realize about a place we used to love to visit. The weekend was enjoyable but it lacked a certain something, which we finally figured out as we were getting ready to leave.

The 8 of Cups represents leaving  behind that which we no longer need to carry with us, be that a person, an experience, or a situation we found ourselves in at one time or another. Although we need to learn from our experiences, we can often get caught in the trap of hanging on to the past and not allowing it to remain in the past.

Steampunk Tarot (Moore /Fell)

Joy and I went to Salem, MA on our 8th anniversary.  We were looking forward to the trip since we had not been there in several years.  We always felt re-energized  after a visit, and we were looking forward to seeing some of the people we felt we had come to know over the trips we had made. This year we had a very different experience.

There were a lot of little things that we noticed that weren't quite 'right' as we got to Salem this time.  Traffic in town was worse than we had ever seen it, the parking was difficult, and the whole feel of the town was different than what we remembered.  All of the construction at the Peabody Essex Museum took a large part of Essex street away, and the shops we stopped in were not as welcoming as we were used to.  The owners of a couple of the shops barely acknowledged us as they kept on talking with the friend that was there.  We were used to this kind of treatment at certain other shops, but not these shops - the ones that were so welcoming and filled with energy the last time we visited.  We chalked it up to being a Friday afternoon and headed back to the hotel.

Saturday was rainy and cool, and we wandered through the town stopping in here and there, getting some food and enjoying the slowly dawning realization that we no longer got the same *oomph* from visiting Salem that we used to. It was a sad kind of realization because we understood that we would no longer look at the city the same way, but it was a liberating thought as well.  We no longer think of this place as more special than any number of places that we visit, because we have changed over the years.

When it comes to getting the 8 of Cups in a Tarot Reading we need to look at what we are holding onto that is actually holding us back.  Romanticizing things past is fine to do as long as we keep that past at bay. When we allow it to dictate how we react to things going on today we are creating an untenable situation.  Not letting go can cause us all kinds of problems, not the least of which is being unable to move forward with our lives.  If we allow the past to dictate our ideas of what we should or should not be doing, we can hardly expect the present to be anything more than a repeat of mistakes and choices that we have already made.

As sad as it was to realize that we do not have the connection with Salem that we once did, the trip did allow us to see that we have grown in many ways since we last visited.  That growth has moved us past the need to 're-charge' by making a pilgrimage, and although there will always be a place in our hearts and memories for Salem we no longer need to rely on a visit there to feel better about anything.

Our 8 of Cups weekend was a success, even if we didn't expect to say goodbye. When that 8 of Cups moment comes to your life, make sure to remember that memories are fine as memories.  They rarely work well as constraints on what you want in your life today.

Blessings,
Mark