The 7 of Cups Exposed

The Seven of Cups is one of my favorite cards of the Minor Arcana. This card is sent to a reading to show delusions/illusions, unrealistic expectations/choices, fantasy/recollection, diversity/someone you know well, vanity/discernment, but mostly this is a card of awareness. This is a tricky card because it’s loaded with interpretations.

So, we’ll examine the card itself. The Cup suit is a suit of emotions and empathy. On the card we have the 7 cups. My deck has nothing but wine in its cups but historically, there are 7 cups in the clouds and these cups have symbols inside. Castles, snakes, fruit, rainbows, faces, the unknown, etc. There are all sorts of things in these cups, but what the card is really saying is that there are options. Things to be fully aware of in life, in your daily reality. Things that cause us to react to other actions. Things that have us believe whatever it is we believe. Regardless, though, in spite of how high I am floating in the clouds I must be aware that there are circumstances out of my control. That the weight of my life is just as heavy as the weight of the life of each person I encounter. It’s all about me to me, but it’s all about you to you.

The 7 of Cups appears as a reminder that when we’re not getting what we want from someone, we need to look at their list of demands and find out why.

I talk to Val every few days or sometimes weeks. She calls to “just check in” and to peek into a relationship that “even a bat knows I have no business pursuing.” Yet, as we all know, what we should do is very different from what we actually do. In the portion of my spreads I like to call “The Issues,” we always get the 7 of Cups and either Judgment or the World cards. (In this spread we find this to mean that the issues in this man’s life keep him from taking Val seriously.) “Mizz Val, can’t we please search for a better guy for you?” I had asked her this for two years. A couple of months ago she finally said, “Oooookay, fine.”

After cutting, shuffling, and throwing the cards… “Someone is looking for you. This is not a man this is a woman. There is a woman you used to work with maybe 5 years ago that is looking for you high and low. Why don’t you join Facebook and let some old friends find you. She has a brother or friend that you met in a group setting that always did like you.”

“Well, I think that’s my old friend Susan and we had a fight about her brother liking me because he was also getting married,” Val explained.

“Don’t tell me you met that dude at his wedding,” I sighed.

“Girl, what kinda hussy do you think I am?” Val cracked up.

About 3 weeks ago she called me saying that she’d gone ahead and joined Facebook and Twitter – just for the heck of it. She was now reunited with scores of old friends, old acquaintances, some people she didn’t remember (or even know), and of course Susan. “So, her brother never married that girl and he actually friended me on Facebook. He lives about 30 miles away and we have seen each other 5 times in two weeks.”

“Oh my goodness, Mizz Val! You are turning into a real hussy!” We laughed and talked about their dates and to my enjoyment (for her) but a little sadness (for me) she told me, “I probably won’t be able to call you for awhile because I need to update my wardrobe and he’s taking me to Vegas for my birthday.”

How often do you get the 7 of Cups in your Tarot readings?