What is the meaning of symbols in Eight of Cups Tarot Card?

In Waite’s Tarot deck, the Eight of Cups Tarot card depicts a man walking away into the distance. In the foreground there are 8 golden cups, beautiful nature around, but the young man wants to leave this place. The atmosphere of the card can be described as a quiet sadness from parting, leaving. The eclipse of the sun in the upper corner of the card symbolizes the beginning of a new cycle, a period of temporary darkness.

Card symbols

Man
Turning away and stepping back, he turns again to follow the path, postponing the holiday. Avoiding your true nature or being in a state of denial.

Red Clothes and Boots
Emphasizes that the person leaves on his own initiative, no one chased him away. It is also a symbol of travel, wanderings.

Staff
Symbolizes will, wisdom and self-confidence. This is help in overcoming the thorny path.

Sun and Moon
Balance of yin-yang energies and male-female energies. A sense of balance between extroverted and introverted tendencies. The culmination of wisdom, far-reaching understanding. Strength and radiance, as well as care, fertility and abundance.

Solar eclipse
Symbolizes the time of renewal. Also speaks of hidden dangers and ambiguity of the situation.

Swamp
Symbolizes sadness and hopelessness.

River
The river represents the use of ancient and intuitive knowledge to travel into the unconscious, as well as the physical path to the source.

Path to the Mouth of the River
This is the path of fate and the feeling that you know what is right and what is wrong.

Mountain
Symbolizes emotional and spiritual achievements, goals. Peak experiences that are within reach and in the past, that are empowering for you. Also mountains can mean obstacles and difficulties. They personify the search for spiritual truths.

Gorge
Symbolizes zeal to cope with all difficulties.

Cups
A symbol of past victories and successes. They symbolize what a person has decided to give up – undertakings, affairs, worries, family, social circle, habitual way of life.
This is humility and humble character. Confidence that does not overshadow the ability to accept new knowledge and to be a good listener.

The eight is a summary. The Eight of Cups is one of three “breakthrough” cards, denoting a sad farewell (along with the Chariot, meaning the joyful “hero’s performance” on the battlefield, and the Six of Swords, symbolizing the journey into the unknown, to new shores). It shows that we have left our familiar environment, parted with people or things to which we “got used to with our hearts”, and set off on a long journey, into an unknown future.
It testifies that we are not expelled, we ourselves decided to leave (it’s another matter that we could have had no other choice). The “difficulty of saying goodbye” lies in two aspects: we have left what is dear to us, and we do not know what awaits us.

Discover the symbolism of other Minor Arcana: