Card of the Week: Eight of Cups

During any struggle, what may seem to some as a capitulation may in reality be a strategic redirection toward a larger goal.  Difficult things can take a long time.  Impossible things, a little longer.

The Eight of Cups recommends a minor retreat as part of the path to larger progress.  This may take the form of a brief vacation or some other kind of physical travel, or an emotional withdrawal and pause for introspection.  Either may be helpful.  Look for context to suggest whether this is a temporary respite to recharge, or a much deeper need to refocus and choose an entirely new direction.

Inverted, this card suggests what was meant as a private retreat could now become a public spectacle.  Don’t allow fear to let you postpone what you know must still be done.

In “The Immunity Syndrome”, the Federation has lost contact with star system Gamma 7-A.  The Intrepid, a starship with an all- Vulcan crew, is investigating when it too is lost.  The Enterprise is sent to Sector 3-9-J to continue the investigation, where it finds an enormous dark zone of negative energy in space.  As the Enterprise proceeds into the void, the zone begins to affect the ship, draining energy from the ship’s systems and from the crew.  At the center of the void, they find the source: an eleven thousand mile long giant alien amoeba.  Mr. Spock takes a shuttlecraft into the amoeba to probe into its nucleus, and determines that it is preparing to replicate.  Kirk orders the Enterprise into the organism to deploy antimatter charges into its nucleus.  The Enterprise rescues Spock’s shuttlecraft as it retreats, and the threat is destroyed.