Since I'm about to take off for vacation for two weeks and won't be near a computer on the

Since I'm about to take off for vacation for two weeks and won't be near
a computer on the first, I thought I'd post the October COTM before I
left.

The Card of the Month for October, 1992 is the 4 of Cups.

Name:              Lord of Blended Pleasures
Kabalistic:        Chesed in Briah  (this is Mercy in the Mental world)
Astrological:      Moon in Cancer 20 degrees - 30 degrees
Angels:            Hayayel and Mevamayah

The general image of the card is four chalices with at least one, and
usually two, full while the others are partially filled or empty.  The
Golden Dawn refers to this card as success or pleasure approaching
their end with the card much too passive to represent complete
happiness.

Wang, who follows the early GD closely, states the card is
pleasure with reservations.  The energy is seen as very passive.  It is
"blended pleasure and success, receiving pleasure, but mixed with some
slight discomfort and anxieties.

Early Crowley saw the card as weakness and abandonment to desire.  He
returns to a general view of the "seeds of decay in the fruits of
pleasure".  Compare this with the 6 of cups from several months ago.
Crowley expanded upon this in the Book of Thoth, noting that four is a
"barren" and "awkward" number.  He talks here of the duality becoming
four, leading to individuallity, and ending in a blind alley. Harris,
his collaborator, wrote, "the energy of the element, although ordered,
has lost the original purity of the conception."

Paupus, seldom following anyone else, writes of the card totally from
its existence as a cup.  He sees it as "serious obstacles to love.  They
arise from other persons, not from the lovers."

Several other interpretations exist, but I leave them to their authors
to expound.

One interesting note.  I did not find any source that speaks of this
card either reversed or ill-dignified.  The passiveness of this card
appears to preclude the need for such.

I see the card as an old man whose life has been full, but with somethng
missing.  It represents the nagging voice that says that there must be
something better or that a chance has been missed.  It is the card of
the individual who has rested upon their laurels too long and now senses
lost opportunities.  Life is still good, but incomplete, and possibly
ready to fall apart.  In a spread, I generally look for the cards of the
past to show what is missing or the turning point.  If it is in the
future, I try to caution the querent against laziness.
___
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