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Minor Arcana · Cups
Seven of Cups
So many futures float in front of you that you can't settle on one. From down here, the castle and the dragon look equally tempting. Pick one, or they'll stay daydreams.
- Rank
- Seven — Reflection
- Suit
- Cups — water, emotion
- Reads as
- Assessing the emotional path, and sometimes getting lost in what could be instead.
- Fantasy
- Illusion
- Wishful thinking
- Choices
- Imagination
What Seven of Cups means
Fairy money, in folk tales, has a habit of turning into leaves. Some of the visions in these cups will do the same the first time you test them: the farmhouse you've been picturing looks perfect until you read the inspection report.
The brightest cup holds a shrouded figure giving off light, and there's no telling who it is. The more an option dazzles, the less you may know about it, and that includes someone you've only met at their best.
When you'd see this
After an evening of vacation listings, you close the laptop without booking.
Teacher, chef, park ranger, potter: each new career sounds perfect for about a week.
On the commute you plan a dozen different lives, then walk into the same office.
What's in the picture
-
1
Seven cups floating in cloudsSeven cups hover in clouds, not on solid ground. Each holds a different vision: a castle, jewels, a wreath, a dragon, a veiled figure. Fantasies, not realities.
-
2
The silhouetted figure belowA dark figure stands below, looking up, in shadow. We can't see their face. Lost in possibility, unable to tell which visions are real and which are illusion.
-
3
The mixed nature of the visionsSome cups hold desirable things (castle, jewels). Others hold dangers (dragon, snake). In a fantasy state, everything looks equally compelling.
-
4
The clouds obscuring everythingNothing is grounded. Everything floats in clouds, the classic symbol of illusion and unclear thinking. Reflection has turned inward into daydreaming.
Reversed
Four ways to read this card reversed. Which one depends on the question.
Blocked. Until you have more information, you can't choose between the dreams in front of you.
Internal. You live a whole other life in your daydreams, but none of it shows in your real one.
Excess. You add new dreams and options all the time, so you never commit to any of them.
Shadow. Daydreaming about every possible future lets you avoid the risk of choosing one.
How to read tarot reversals explains these four lenses and how to choose one. The readings for all 78 cards are also in Reading Reversals, a printable guide on Etsy.
Where it sits in the suit
The Suit of Cups, ace to king
Ten numbered beats, then four people who carry them.
Wishes come down to earth at the Nine, where nine cups stand in a row on a shelf behind a seated figure who got what they wanted. Before that, at the Eight, someone has to walk away from cups that were fine.
Reading a card is a skill, not a lookup
Every Cups card here is taught in full in Chapter III of Little Grimoire, with drills that make the meanings stick.
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