GOD AND MAN - SPIRITUAL LESSONS?

In life there are many religious values and I was reminded today about peoples opinions of 'God'.

It seems to me sometimes that people 'rely on God' to provide all the answers. Many say 'if its God's will' or 'pray to God' etc when wishing or hoping or wanting things to manifest. God is Faith and belief that good things will triumph over evil. In short that is probably the way I would have thought most people described God. Everybody has their own view, feelings and emotions over God. They have their own beliefs and there are many religions that depict God by other names or have designated ways of worship.

I have always felt that everyone should go with their feelings, go with their heart and their hunches and feelings in their religious values. To recognise God in their lives the way that 'God' comes to them.
 
But often people wonder Who is God or What is God? to each and every person will be answers that may vary or differ. Tarot offers advice on this but it is very generalised.



On this card you see a man sitting on his own under a Tree. There is nobody in the picture except him and a hand that offers a golden chalice to him. There are three other chalices on the ground.


The man is sitting with his arms folded and appears to reject or ignore the chalice that is being given. The arm giving the chalice is not 'real' therefore it is suggesting that the person is being offered many things, opportunities or options and seems to rebuff them.
It is quite an emotional card being a cups card and cups cards do have spiritual context because they involve the emotions, how we feel and how we are affected by things around us. The number we have here is FOUR.

The Name of God consists of four Hebrew CONSONANTS -- yod, hay, vav, hay -- and is referred to as HaShem HaGadol, "The Great Name" in the Hebrew language. The English equivalent is Y H V H. The Greeks simply called it the Tetragrammaton -- "the four letters."
 
Perhaps this is a good card to produce some thoughts?
So lets go back to our man sitting there full of apathy, boredom, lack of motivation who is contemplating life choices. He just seems to be uninterested in everything that is around him.
 
Is he asking ' is that all there is' - is he disappointed with himself is he thinking, there has to be more to life then this? Where he is sitting is quite pretty, green grass, a lovely tree and seemingly very peaceful, nature around him and likely as this is a water card, we are being given the ocean also.

So in this card, we have nature all around this man, the beauty of the daytime in full colour splendour, all that nature can offer right there surrounding him and in the background the Moon or a planet in the sky so maybe this is showing a man on earth with all the wonders of nature to enjoy? So why is he so bored? the chalices are not imagination they are real and they are seemingly gold so this man is offered many material things here but yet all this landscape and all the gold and the sky and everything around him is not enough?
 
Maybe he is disappointed in something, maybe something happened in his world that disappointed him, perhaps he felt bad about something or could not seem to forgive himself emotions or thoughts or even deeds that made him sit under that tree and contemplate in this way.

A man like this is depressed. Everything in life just is not enough - or maybe he wants more then what he is offered in life. Maybe he sits under that tree to dream of the things that he cannot have? or he wants to be something that he cannot be? The entire picture is of someone filled with disatisfaction. The disatisfied man who does not seem to be able to pin his disappointments on anyone in the picture as there is no one there.

He cannot put his apathy on anyone because there is no one there. He cannot ask for help or converse with anyone about his emotional state or problems because there is no one there but him.
He needs counselling or help to deal with his disatisfactions here perhaps?.

He needs an opportunity that he WANTS and not what is offered perhaps? He is ignoring the cups on the ground so he is not happy with what he has got and he is not happy with what he is offered.





The upright Four of Cups is NOT the card that Tarot gives to us however, it is the REVERSED four of cups.
How does this change things for this Man? It does not alter all the things that he feels, or what he has or what he needs because he still has the same things going on as in the cup card upright.

Now it seems this man has 'changed his tune'. Now he is somehow feeling rejuvenated, awakened a bit more to what opportunities there are around him, appreciating perhaps what he already has and perhaps even appreciating the wonder of the nature that he is sitting in and that surrounds him. It is almost as though he has a rejuvenated view of everything. In this card the man is looking forward to things to come, he is somehow not disatisfied any longer - he is looking to 'fix things' and make things better, he is getting motivated about his emotions but is anyone else in the picture? No.

So who is making him feel better and more motivated who is prepared to listen to him or help him when there is nobody there in the picture but him?

And what does that 4 suddenly turn into? The Emperor card is the Four - the Emperor is the ruler of all things on Earth, like a King or an Authority - but this four would be reversed - this is a non biological father - or ruler? harsh rules?
 
When I look at this card reversed and I think of the subject matter, it reminds me of Man who has everything but wants more. It reminds me of Man who cannot find the reason why he is so unhappy in life , who cannot share his deepest feelings, his wishes his desires his wants thoughts dreams and needs or even appreciate all that is around him because of an undefinable loneliness that is perhaps within himself emotionally. Perhaps also it is showing that he may be part of a great big world but he feels like a man on an island lost perhaps and nothing can seem to reach him inside emotionally.
Turn this upside down and most of the problems are 'fixed'.

Suddenly there is someone to talk to even if there is no one in the picture but the man, suddenly the world is a beautiful place, suddenly the man is motivated, rejuvenated, able to communicate even though we cant see who is in the picture but him. Meloncholy is reversed, apathy has vanished and emotions runs to looking forward to everything. But is that looking forward to everything, or does it mean, that the person feels there is more to look forward to because they feel emotionally they are 'fixed' ?

Now I have a strange way of explaining things, but in this picture we are subtley being told what God is or Who God is, I think Tarot has given us more what God MEANS to people or to Man rather then the former possibilities.

This man has an invisible person or spiritual connection to solve all his problems. He has a connection to share his emotions with, he is not sharing material things, because they are displaced when reversed as such - here this man feels that he has something he can accept and his apathy has vannished. He has a feeling of happiness like he never had before. He has learnt to forgive all his disppointments, accept all his sorrows and with this spiritual element or invisible counselling emotionally he feels he can do anything because he has the feeling in his heart that all is possible.

So does Tarot tell us that mankind are really alone in themselves and with everything in the world at their feet they are 'missing' something? That God to them is a connection to make all these things in their world seem right? the missing piece , the piece they were looking for?

Or, is this a man who is so disatisfied with everything that he thinks that God is the answer to get him everything that he wants?
Is this a moral tale? is his belief (sitting on his own) vanity and hopes and desires thinking God can put everything right for him while he is unmotivated to do anything for himself? or has he put all worldly goods in their place and accepted that the spiritual values outweigh anything material that life can bring?




You decide.

Empathy.

NB. This is experimental Tarot and the Tarot 'Result' in no way reflects religious viewpoints from Empathy. It is an unbiased reading.