55 BURDEN

Burden, heavy labor, conscience; difficult fate; ethics; guilt; responsibility.

Leo/Capricorn

Sun/Saturn.

Ego + Elder.

The combination of Ego and Master recalls the ancient Greek myth of Sisyphus. As is known, King Sisyphus was punished by the gods for his sins - deceit, cunning, greed. The punishment consisted of him having to perform heavy and fruitless work in the afterlife: rolling a huge stone up a mountain, which endlessly rolled back down from the summit, forcing Sisyphus to start all over again.

On the card, an elder has shouldered an unbearable burden - a huge boulder that he drags uphill.

Sisyphus, in ancient Greek mythology the son of Aeolus, ruler of the winds, builder and king of Corinth. After death, he was forced in Hades to roll a heavy stone up a mountain, which, barely reaching the summit, rolled back down each time. Hence the expressions 'Sisyphean labor,' 'Sisyphean stone,' meaning heavy, endless and fruitless work and torment.

Self-punishment. The previous card Fortune - luck from above, and this card - punishment from within.

Stone - our dependence on someone or something.

Positive meanings: responsibility, endurance, determination, ability to see things through to completion. Negative meanings: exhaustion, inability to calculate one's strength.

A heavy day, there will be much hard work. Complete exhaustion by day's end.

Working to exhaustion.

You have shouldered a heavy burden. Try to understand what drives you.

Today you can learn to understand responsibility and obligation to others and to yourself.

Someone may fall ill - you will have to take responsibility for their recovery (buying medicine, caring for them).

The worse it is, the better. A person feels fulfilled when completely loaded to capacity. The worse it is, the better. They refuse rest and entertainment for the sake of achieving some goal. At an unconscious level - ancestral burden. At a conscious level - pride or hyper-responsibility. Sometimes for a person this motive becomes a peculiar motto: 'I am ready to want what I must!'

A burdensome state, the person feels heavy. Guilt, dependence, inner burden. Awareness that something must be done. A burden, often someone else's, that we take upon ourselves and carry, despite everything, to complete exhaustion.

Very heavy, somewhat irrational, senseless. The card very often indicates ancestral karmic burden.

In such a union, relationships are consistently heavy, like a burden that 'grounds' and 'binds' the partners. However, due to habit or stubbornness, they continue anyway, since each member of the couple believes this is 'their cross' that must be carried through life.

It's not necessary to do what doesn't have to be done. Perhaps the person does this from a desire to conform. Perhaps it's boasting about problems. Insufficient rest, entertainment, lack of self-care can lead to illness, particularly of the spine and joints. And the labor is endless and meaningless!

Carry on, since you've started. Having given your word, hold firm. It's necessary to see what you've begun through to the end. You must rely exclusively on yourself.

Burdensome. Will require much care in the future.

- Heavy labor. - The burden is not physical, but guilt, dependence, inner burden, someone else's burden. - A burden we took upon ourselves. - Escaping from one's own life. 'The woman had no troubles, so she bought a pig' (proverb). - Everyone should take upon their shoulders labor proportionate to their strength, because if its weight proves accidentally excessive, they may involuntarily fall into the mud (A. Dante).