8 is a number of setting priorities and goals, organizing your life, systems, regeneration and structure, practicality, balance and symmetry. On its side 8 resembles the lemniscate - a symbol of infinity. Cups are associated with the element of water, with emotions, love, pleasure in life, matters pertaining to the unconscious, intuition and inner planes. This card is sometimes seen as indicating a period of disillusionment; a time to walk away from it all and reflect upon what matter to you.  Reversed it can indicate looking at psychic or intuitive experiences and re-evaluating them; deciding which psychic tools are most appealing to you.  It may also be warning against over-organizing and warning that you need to trust your instincts and psychic intuition.

Reflecting on relationships and thinking over what you like and don't like about them.  Putting your emotions into some kind of order and finding ways of categorizing or analyzing your feelings.  Establishing emotional priorities  among several relationships or within a single relationship. - Gail Fairfield

The Vikings 8 of Cups shows a man walking away from 8 cups piled upside down.  Beside the cups runs a small red stream, possible blood.  The man walks into the distance with a jaunty air, as though he is leaving a difficult situation behind him.  The landscape around him is snow covered and frigid but a streak of yellow and orange lights the sky off in the distance.  The LWB calls this card Njord abandoning the Aesir after the decline of the gods.  Njord is a fertility god associated with the sea (one of the Vanir) and the father of Freya and Frey.  Whatever has taken place, Njord seems happy to be going home.  On the Romanian Dream 8 of Cups we see a man in casual clothes seated on the top of a cliff.  He is looking out over a canyon that seems eons old.  In front of his are two almost ghostly figures - one holds what looks like a spear in one hand and has her other hand on a prone figure.  She seems to be dragging it somewhere.  In the air above the man's heat we see 8 cups.  He reminds me of an archeologist taking a break to appreciate the breath-taking vista that is spread before him.  Perhaps he is imagining what those cups would have mean to the culture that created them.

I found both these cards intriguing for different reasons.  The Vikings 8 of Cups reminds me that sometimes leaving behind things we love can actually be liberating.  I don't doubt that Njord had connections with a number of the Aesir, he even married a jotunyor ( a female giant) named Skadi with whom he maintained a cordial relationship even after their divorce.  When his family first moved to Asgard to live with the Aesir, Njord must have left behind friends and loved ones.  And yet he moved forward and embrace the challenges that awaited him.  He reminds me that even if we physically leave behind people, places and things that we love they never truly leave our hearts.  As long as we hold them in our hearts they are always with us.

The figure on the Romanian Dream 8 of Cups reminds me of an archeologist who loves his work and love the cultures he studies.  I can easily see him dreaming of finding those beautiful chalices, even though he knows they will never truly belong to him.  His love of his work and the peoples he studies enables him to walk away from such treasures because he truly believes they should be shared with the world.  This is a message to me that sometimes the greater good (both for ourselves and for those we love) is often served by letting go of things we love.  For some reason this card is making me thing of a situation involving a loved one on life support.  They may be brain dead and no longer be the person we knew and loved, but we cling to the illusion that they will wake up again and all will return to normal.  The reality is that it might be kinder and healthier for all concerned to release that person and allow him or her to continue on their soul journey.  Even releasing a beloved pet who is suffering can be a heart-wrenching task but ultimately if we love them we must let them go.

That is the message of this card for me today - it's about being able to release things we love.  I often have a problem letting go of things, although for some reason not friends.  I think it depends upon the circumstances.  If someone hurts me and I decide I can no longer be friends with that person then I am able to cut off contact with him or her.  I may miss them and think about them but I am able to move forward.  At the same time I cling to possessions, to things.  I still miss my German Shepherd and talk about him every day and he died in 1997.  Of course the reality is that severing ties with friends does hurt me, I just won't admit it.  Even when I know that it was in everyone's best interests for the relationship to end, I find it hard to let go.  This card brought to mind the saying "If you love something let it go.  If it comes back to you it is yours.  If it doesn't, it never was."  All things in life have a cycle, even relationships.  There have been a number of times in my life when I have lost contact with people who were close friends and then reconnect with them years later.  It's as though we are meant to be friends but had to go through some challenges alone in order to truly appreciate each other.  It gives me something to ponder.