Sketchbook - Four of Cups

At first glance this may seem like an unnecessarily forbidding image for the Four of Cups, but that's because we all tend to automatically look at the Venus fly trap from a bug's perspective. Attempting to relate to the plant itself is a little more challenging -- it has mandibles, but no brain or eyes, no cute earlobes to pierce or cheeks to pinch.

So here are some of facts about the fly trap that fascinate me, and which also inform its association with this card:

1. It gives off a powerfully sweet odor, something like overripe citrus.

2. As voracious as it looks, the plant doesn't actually need to eat insects to survive -- it can make do quite happily on a diet of sunlight and water.

3. Each individual set of jaws can only open and close a handful of times, after which they turn black and drop off.

4. A healthy fly trap will flower, just like most other plants. But it's recommended that you pinch off the flowers, so that 100% of the plant's energy will be invested in growing more traps.

I find it interesting that I focused on a similar image when I last wrote about this card. Something about the sight of all those mouths seems unnatural but also strangely human -- we want so much, but we are so difficult to satisfy. The idea that the Venus fly trap has so many more mouths than it needs is interesting to me, because it takes such a great deal of energy to produce such elaborate technology. The fact that we encourage this instead of letting the plant complete its regular reproductive cycle makes me think of the ways in which we forestall our own growth, wanting to keep things just as they are for just a little bit longer, clinging to the recent past out of longing, indolence or fear.

We have a strange relationship with pleasure and nourishment; a dearth of it impoverishes us emotionally and physically, but so does a wealth of it. Where is the line between the splendid fruition of the Three of Cups and the hungry hyper-abundance of the Four? I suspect that one can only ever find that line by crossing it.

Previously On Arcanalogue: The Four Of Cups