Four of Cups – Why The Sea Moans

The Four of Cups is a card that holds a lot of dynamic. With the cups we deal with the element of water and in this suit we mostly find that we deal with the emotional aspect of of the suit of cups. In The Fairy Tale Tarot we see the chaos of emotions that we sometimes get caught up in though the connection of the card’s traditional meanings of self-absorption and apathy through the Brazilian children’s tale “Why The Sea Moans“.

To story goes somewhat like this:

Once there was a lonely princess named Dionysia who spent her time sitting by the edge of the sea listening to the waves roll in and out. One day she heard her name called throug the crashing of the waves and she was surprised to see a searpant rise from the water to the surface to greet her.

The serpant’s name was Labismena, and she and Dionysia spent the coming years playing together on the beach and in the sea, keeping each other from the pangs of lonlieness. When Dionysia turned sixteen Labismena said it was time for her to leave and return to the sea, but should Dionysia ever need her again, she only needs to come to the sea and call the serpant’s name and she will return.

Meanwhile in a kingdom nearby a wife lay on her deathbed and she gave a ring to her husband, the king, and told him to marry whomever’s finger fit the ring. The king travled far and wide looking for his new wife and one day he came upon the castle where Dionysia lived. He placed the ring upon her finger and it fit perfectly. Dionysia was upset becuse she didn’t want to marry the old king, so in desperation she went to the spot by the sea and called for her serpant friend.

Labismena came and heard of Dionysia’s troubles and told her to ask the king to get for her a dress that has all the colors of the flowers in the fields and until she has this dress she would not marry him. Dionysia does this and after some time the king comes back with the dress. Worried again, the princess goes to the sea and calls for the serpant. Labismena again gives her advice and tells Dionysia to ask the king for a dress made with all the colors of the fish in the sea. Annoyed the king begins his quest but eventually returns with the dress. Again Dionysia seeks Labismena’s help and again the serpant tells the princess to ask for a dress, this time the color of the sky and stars. Again the king searches and again the king returns with the dress.

Finally the princess finds she is out of options and must marry the king, but again she returns to the sea hoping her friend can help once again. Labismena tells Dionysia that she must take the dresses and climb into a boat that she has made for her and that she must sail far away and find a new life. Dionysia does this and as she prepares to leave she askes her friend if there is anything she can do to repay her kindness. The serpant tells her that she is actually a princess who was turned into a serpant. Once Dionysia finds the ultimate happiness in her new life, she must come to the sea and call her name three times and the princess’s happiness will break the curse.

The princess takes up with a palace as a hen maid and begins her new life. A festival begins in the palance and Dionysia wears her dress made of the color of flowers on the first day of the festival to try and catch the eye of the prince. The prince sees her and finds her beautiful but Dionysia needs to slip away and put on her regular clothes before anyone notices she has been gone. She goes back on the second day, this time in her dress made in the color of the fish in the sea and again the prince sees her and can’t keep his eyes off her. But again she must leave before he can speak to her. On the third day she arrives in the dress made in the colors of the sky and stars and this time the prince manages to declare his love for her and gives her a jewel and asks her to marry him. But again she must leave and she sneaks away.

The prince is lovesick and cannot eat as he pines for his lost love. No one could make the prince eat but one day the hen maid made a broth for the prince and when nobody was watching she sliped the jewel in the bowl. When the prince began to eat the broth he found the jewel and asked to have whomever made the food brought to him at once. The hen maid was brought to him and he instantly recognized her as the girl from the festival. He quickly recovered once they were united and they married at once.

In the great joy of her new love and marriage, Dionysia forgot about the promise she made to her friend Labismena. As the serpant began to come to terms with her fate she slipped deeper into the dark depths of the sea and accepted her loneily destiny. The serpant would spend her days deep in the sea, crying and moaning from her loneliness and if you listen closely to sounds of the waves there is a deep moan that can be heard. It is the cry of the lonely serpant princess of the sea.

This story shows some of the classic aspects of the 4 of Cups. In this card some of the traditional aspects that we see are:

1. Self-Absorption: being focused on your own needs and feelings, being unaware of what is going on with people around you, takingbut not giving, ignoring the help and blessings that you may be receiving from those around you.
2. Apathy: loss of interest, not making an effort to thank or repay others, lack of motivation and desire.
3. Withdrawal: going within and being introspective, reflection, dreaming, not paying attention to what is going on around you, being lost in your own world.

We see these things in the story through Dionysia’s lack of attention to her friend’s needs. She becomes so lost in her own gains and her own happiness that she forgets about the promise that she made to her friend to help her with her troubles. While she may have verbally shown appreciation for what the serpant does for her, she doesn’t follow through with actions and seems to forget about where she could have been had Labismena helped her. Visually we can see this as well in the way that the serpant holds the fourth cup, offering it to the princess on the beach, but she looks disinterested. Meanwhile the other three cups sit on the beach, unnoticed and empty showing how the princess doesn’t see what she has and yet she seems to still have a feeling of needing more. Lisa Hunt also comments on the rocky and shell-strewn beach representing the endless emotional conflict (i.e. the rocky emoitonal road around you), the serpant represents the unconscious being unable to reserface to the conscious and the sun set showing a sense of deminished hope around the sitaution.

Thing about this…

Are you finding that you’re dealing with a situation right now that is hard to see clearly? Is there something happening around you right now where you have been going to others for help but maybe you haven’t offered to recipricate what has been given to you? Is someone trying to help you but you aren’t seeing it for what it is? Let the 4 of Cups be a reminder to you to keep yourself aware of those people and events happening around you even when you find yousrelf embroiled in your own emotional turmoil. Take a moment to step back, go within and serach your unconscious and higher self for the answers to guide you through your difficulties. Be sure to show your thanks and gratefulness to both the people that help and to the Divine in times of trouble.