connection between Seven of Cups and Magician

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 11 Feb 2005, and now archived in the Forum Library.

graylensman	11 Feb 2005
As I try to deepen my understanding, a thought struck me: The Magician displays the four suits: Wands, Swords, Cups, Pentacles. All options are possible here, one only needs to choose. The Seven of Cups displays - well, seven options - but the meaning (to me) seems clear: all options are possible, one only needs to choose. The difference is that the Magician, a Major Arcana card, relates to higher, more spiritual matters, where the Cup card seems to pertain to more worldly matters. Any thoughts, anybody?

firemaiden	11 Feb 2005
Interesting thoughts, Graylensman. I think there is a great difference, in that the magician has the elements of creation before him. He has the opportunity to create from nothing out of the elements. (will he pull a rabbit out of a hat?) Whereas the seven is more about choosing between seven different options, no? The rabbits have already been pulled out of their respective hats, so to speak, and now is time to pick one.

Clau	11 Feb 2005
I agree with Firemaiden: The Magician has all the elements to create, not to choose from. Remember, all things are made out of the 4 elements (5 in some cases) in different proportions, so the magician uses his intelligence to create from noting. Whereas the 7 of cups doesn't create, it "just" chooses form the 7 possibilities. My 2 cents, blessings, Clau

Flavio	11 Feb 2005
To me the Magician doesn't have to choose, he has all the tools to work with and he knows he's just and instrument or a channel of a higher force to take action in the material world with those tools (the 4 suits), on the other hand, 7 of Cups for me represents a moment when you have many options available or you are making plans for your future but are them only a daydream or something we can ground and make real? In a reading those two cards would connect to me as follows: 7 of Cups, Magician Someone with a lot of posibilities, takes a decisition and start working to make real her/his dreams. Magician, 7 of Cups A very capable and resourceful person wheter decides what to do with her/his resources OR a person with a lot of resources but doesn't know or can't decide what to do with them. Hope it was useful, can't wait to see what other members have to say about it...

tarotbear	11 Feb 2005
One difference is the Magician makes choices and takes actions to achieve the end he wishes to have happen. He is working towards a specific goal. In the Seven Cups, we are given a sense of indecision - which Cup hold what we want at this moment and which cup something we might want tomorrow? Do we even have a clue as to what we want? There is a sense of daydreaming associated with this card - shown well in the Robin Wood deck where the woman's hair turns into dream-like billows around the cups. In this card some choices are good and some choices may be worthless, but the viewer has yet to decide.

Thirteen	11 Feb 2005
graylensman wrote: The Magician displays the four suits: Wands, Swords, Cups, Pentacles. All options are possible here, one only needs to choose. The Seven of Cups displays - well, seven options - but the meaning (to me) seems clear: all options are possible, one only needs to choose. That isn't *quite* the usual meaning. Remember that cups are emotions, feelings and can stand for visions as well--we don't, as in the Magician card, have a balance of suits; in this one, it's full of just cups. The visions that cups can bring can be true, psychic visions, but they can also be hallucinations. Cups/water are ruled by the moon, and that card, as you know, includes madness, hallucination and trickery as well as deep magic. Let us remember also that the 7's stand for struggle, an ego fighting for victory. Think of the other 7's--the guy with one wand facing six opponents, the pentacle guy staring up at the tree, waiting for it to bear fruit, and several of the seven swords being stolen away in the night. 7's have not that commanding power that the magician has, singular and in control. The cups float free, the man in the card is wowed by them, under THEIR control, not vice versa. Both Waite and Crowley warn that you must be careful of the visions you see in those 7 cups. They are likely to be tricks. This is the "don't count your chickens," card, the one where you imagine all you're going to do with the money when your chickens hatch...and then all the eggs get broken. This is the sort of card you'll get for the girl who's met this new guy, the one who insists: "We're going to get married (one cup), and have a honeymoon around the world (two cup), and a big house (three cup)...." You know the type, don't you? The one way you could say 7/Cups is similar to the Magician is if the Magician is reversed--if he's playing con man and snake oil salesman rather than the real deal. There, like the 7/cups, he's offering you maybe visions, promises and daydream that are far more likely to be hallucinations and tricks.

graylensman	11 Feb 2005
Thanks everyone for the wonderful insightful responses. I knew I wasn't grasping some important differences! :)

MeeWah	11 Feb 2005
The Magician is governed by his knowledge & understanding of applied will. He is a do-er & in control. His motto is "I Will." His efforts are "makings"; he causes things to happen or to manifest in accordance with a purpose or goal. In 7-Cups, the viewer is moreorless a spectator & relatively clueless about direction or focus. Things assail him or "happen" to him that are usually the result of the unfocussed efforts, the half-hearted, the toolittletoolate, the unresolved. A scattered pattern of a lack of control--7-The Chariot about control & self-discipline--over the self & the emotions that can lead to feeling helpless. Btw: superb clarifications by Tarotbear & Thirteen!

The connection between Seven of Cups and Magician thread was originally posted on 11 Feb 2005 in the Using Tarot Cards board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Using Tarot Cards, or read more archived threads.