The Seven of Cups represents the sphere of desires on the creative level of human expression. Seven of Cups upright: aim. Seven of Cups reversed: aimlessness.
The creative level of human expression is also the desirous level, hence, we are looking at desirous desiring. This takes us into the belly of the desire beast. The respective faculty of consciousness is difficult to handle and can turn into an inner demon. It is set up for the liberation of a few and the ruin of many.
You may have heard that desires are bad. That misses the mark. We can desire constructively and unconstructively. For instance, we can advance in enlightenment by desiring illumination. But desires can cause suffering if we get attached to them. Among other things, attachment can lead to anxiety.
The key to non-suffering is balancing desiring and non-attachment. We may desire as much as we want as long as we expect nothing. Sounds like an impossible split? Try it. It’s not that hard.
The faculty of the Seven of Cups is wishing. A wish requires skilled and clear visualization that gives it sufficient potency to manifest.
The higher octave of desiring is aspiration. We aspire to be something rather than to have something, like aspiring to become an enlightened person.
An auspicious Seven of Cups calls for imagining clear wishes and aspiring for greatness. It also reminds us of being careful what we wish for.
An inauspicious Seven of Cups may indicate the vague or negative visualization of a wish. It may also signify that the querent is looking inward only, indulging in a fantasy, a make-belief of her desires, or idle daydreaming. This is where the secondary meanings of self-deception, illusion, and wishful thinking come from.
Seven of Cups Symbolism
The geometry in the picture produces a seven-pointed star.
There is no method for drawing the seven-pointed star, and we can only draw it by trial and error. For this reason, the seven-pointed star is a symbol of skill and experience.
Indeed, we need to practice wishing, which is a matter of trial and error. We shall burn our fingers, fall and get up, and learn from failures.
The more we practice wishing, the better we get at manifesting.
The Five Psychological Core Meanings of the Seven of Cups
We derive the psychological meanings of Tarot cards from their position on the Tree of Life. In the Enlightenment Tarot framework, the Seven of Cups represents Netzach of Netzach, i.e., desires on the creative level of human expression.
Every Tarot card represents a faculty or power of consciousness. We can use faculties of consciousness constructively and destructively, which produce either a fortunate or an adverse state of mind. Hence, every Tarot card has five core meanings.
These are the five core meanings of the Seven of Cups:
- Power of consciousness: Wishing
- Constructive use: Aim, aimful wishing
- Unconstructive use: Aimlessness (in wishing), not knowing what one wants, negative expectations
- Auspicious state of mind: Purposefulness
- Inauspicious state of mind: Dreaminess, fantasizing, suffering from attachments or cravings
Reflective Questions
If the Seven of Cups appears in your spread, you may want to ask yourself the following reflective questions:
- What are my soul’s wishes? How do they differ from my ego’s wishes?
- Do my wishes align with my aspiration?
- Do I visualize wishes in great detail and as present realities?
- Do I balance wishes with unattachment?
- Am I indulging in fantasies? What would happen if I decided to realize one of my fantasies?
- What lessons did I learn from past failures and am I careful what I wish for?
Seven of Cups Summary
The Seven of Cups inspires us to formulate clear, constructive, and aimful wishes, balance wishes with non-attachment, and practice visualization techniques to improve manifesting.
Where Do Tarot Card Meanings Actually Come From?
The meanings of Tarot cards come from various sources. The most common are:
- The position of the Tarot cards on the Tree of Life
- Astrological correspondences (signs, planets, & houses)
- The symbolism of Tarot cards
- Intuition
- Meanings that pertain to fortune-telling
Most of the Tarot card meanings you can google are astrological correspondences and go back to the Golden Dawn and Arthur Edward Waite. Astrological meanings dominate at present because Astrology is a divination tool and favors fortune-telling. But these meanings are unsuitable for (psychological) Tarot readings.
If you are interested in an overview of the astrological correspondences, you can download a high-resolution chart by subscribing to the Enlightenment Tarot.
Tarot card meanings are a bit of a mess since the meanings that pertain to their position on the Tree of Life are mixed up with astrological correspondences, symbolic interpretations, and fortune-telling connotations. That’s tedious to memorize. Further, tarotists’ opinions, knowledge, and linguistic backgrounds shaped some of these interpretations. Last but not least, many meanings are fuzzy, contradictory, and overlap. If you want to understand why they overlap, read the article How to Deal With the Overlapping Meanings of Tarot cards.
The meanings of the Enlightenment Tarot are based on an objective, holistic framework: the Tree of Life and the four levels of human expression. The resulting meanings are transparent and logical, and hence, easier to memorize.
What do Various Tarotists Say about the Meaning of the Seven of Cups
Let’s explore what different tarotists wrote about the Seven of Cups.
Tarotists consider mostly the astrological significance of Tarot cards. The Seven of Cups associates with the third decanate of Scorpio, ruled by Mars and Uranus and sub-ruled by Cancer and the Moon.
The Scorpio vibes of the first decanate are enduring, romantic, intense, mystical, magnetic, and resourceful. The motherly Cancer and the Moon influence modifies those attributions to cool, subtle and abrupt.
Scorpio rules the 8th house of death, great changes, inheritance, the financial affairs of the business or marriage partner, warfare, and surgery.
What Paul Foster Case Said About the Meanings of the Seven of Cups
For the Seven of Cups, Paul Foster Case offered the keyword illusion. This keyword refers to an unskilled use of wishing and/or a tendency to indulge in fantasies.
Paul added this card may signify illusionary success or that the querent may have an opportunity to succeed, but won’t follow up. The reason being she may be too indolent to take advantage of her opportunities to command circumstances. That’s why an inauspicious Seven of Cups calls for aim, i.e., choosing only the highest objectives, ideas, designs, and resolutions. Paul derived at this interpretation because first, the name of the seventh Sephirah is victory or success and second, this power is difficult to handle.
Paul offered the following inauspicious meanings: lying and deceit, drunkenness, lust, and violence. Lying and deceit is a consequence of indulging in make-believes. Drunkenness and lust out-of-hand desires. Violence goes back to the Scorpio connection, which is ruled by Mars and, in this case, impacted by uncontrolled fluctuation of Moon currents (the third Scorpio decanate).
What Arthur Edward Waite Said About the Meanings of the Seven of Cups
Arthur Edward Waite proposes that this card signifies success (the title of the seventh sphere) but only if accompanied by the Three of Cups. The title of the Three of Cups is Contexting. Remember, contexting defines a context for our creative ideas (Two of Cups)? This means that we should formulate wishes in a meaningful context instead of imagining random or wild desires that dilute our aim.
The following meanings add to this line of thought: idea, desire, will, resolve, determination, design, project, movement. The seventh sphere is indeed the sphere of desires, but Arthur should have known better not to mix the notions of desires and will (intention). The same applies to the notion of idea (Two of Cups) and desire. The terms determination and project pertain to the concept of aimful desiring in a creative context (the project).
Arthur adds the following secondary meanings: imagination and images of reflection (the skill of visualizing wishes), sentiment (emotional reactions to desires), things seen in the glass of contemplation (contemplation of wishes would have been a better term), and some attainment in these degrees, but nothing permanent or substantial. The latter refers to the ever-shifting and difficult to control power of creative desiring.
Arthur gives the following fortune telling connotations: fairy favors and fair child.
What Etteilla Said About the Meaning of the Seven of Cups
Etteilla, a French occultist and the first known professional tarotist, offers the meanings of ideas and plans.
This is off. Ideas are a matter of the second sphere on the Tree of Life, in particular, the Two of Cups, which signifies creative ideas. Plans (Ten of Swords) are intellectual affairs. Here, we are on the level of creativity and wishes, which don’t take external circumstances into consideration yet.
What Papus Said About the Meaning of the Seven of Cups
Papus, another French occultist and the founder of the Martinist Order, suggests the meanings of success and joy.
Success is the title of the seventh sphere on the Tree of Life, and joy is an emotional reaction to success.
What Gregor Mather Said About the Meaning of the Seven of Cups
Gregor Mather, the founder of the Golden Dawn, suggested that an auspicious Seven of Cups signifies an idea, sentiment, reflection, a project, a plan, a design, resolution, and/or decision.
We already covered those when we looked at Arthur’s interpretation of the Seven of Wands. Decision misses the mark since we can’t make decisions on this level, like which wishes to pursue and which wishes to sacrifice. Decisions take place on a higher level, i.e., the level of the Six of Cups.
What Mme. Le Marchand Said About the Meaning of the Five of Cups
Mme. Le Marchand, a 19th century celebrated Parisian fortune teller divined the Five of Wands as follows: Misfortune threatens the family, but love is proof against all trials.
This pertains to fortune telling, hence, no comment. But Mme. Le Marchand hit the mark by referring to the protective power of motherly love (Cancer), which co-rules the third Scorpio decanate.
The Psychological Framework of the Enlightenment Tarot
Every Tarot card represents a faculty of consciousness. We can use a faculty of consciousness constructively and destructively. This produces favorable and adverse experiences.
We can express faculties of consciousness on four levels:
- The spiritual level (wands/fire/intention)
- The creative-feely level (cups/water/imagination)
- The intellectual level (swords/air/intelligence)
- The bodily level (pentacles/earth/bodily action)
The four tools on the magician’s table symbolize these four levels:
- The wand (spiritual)
- The cup (creative-feely)
- The sword (intellectual)
- The pentagram (bodily)
These tools correspond to the four so-called elements: fire, water, air, and earth.
For this reason, the Enlightenment Tarot wands are made of fire, the cups consist of water, and the pents are composed of earth. Unfortunately, it’s impossible to illustrate something made of air, since air is invisible. For that reason, all swords are made of crystal to show at least transparency.
The Enlightenment Tarot derives its meaning from the Tree of Life and the four levels of human expression. This is an objective, holistic framework that reveals the psychological imports of Tarot cards and their faculties of consciousness. Read more about this framework in the article The Psychological Framework of the Enlightenment Tarot.
The Enlightenment Tarot project attempts to rediscover the original meanings of the Tarot cards that pertain to their position on the Tree of Life. These meanings are simple, clear, and easy to memorize.
*This framework is compatible with Paul Foster Case’s qabalistic system.
Do you want to Learn more About The Enlightenment Tarot?
If you want to delve deep into the psychological meanings of Tarot cards, read the book Tarot of Life.
If you are curious about how the Enlightenment Tarot came about, read this article.
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If you are looking for a psychological Tarot deck, you have come to the right place. The Enlightenment Tarot derives the cards’ meanings from a holistic and transparent framework that is easy to learn and memorize. All major and minor arcana carry psychological titles, and the court cards display psychological profiles. Have a look at the Enlightenment Tarot deck here.
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