Barbara Walker Tarot - Four of Cups: Decline

On the night of the seventh veil, a king sits apprehensively watching the sacred dancer. In ancient cyclic philosophies, each period of fulfillment was followed by a period of decline. The Goddess decreed the death of her lover the king, following him into the dark seclusion of the underworld. She removed one of her magic veils at each of the underworld’s seven gates. This was the real meaning of the Dance of the Seven Veils performed by the high priestess Salome (Salom, Peace) in Jerusalem (“the House of Salom”). “Peace” was the sacred king’s word of farewell. The fourth cup, overturned, is the cup of oncoming darkness, wintry stagnation, disillusion, disappointment, satiety, a negative part of the cycle.