Renaissance Tarot (Jones / Lyle) - 7 of Cups

Sulis

I think this is the only Minor Arcana card (apart from the courts) that depicts a mythical being and not a human.

Against a blue background we see a mermaid.
She is surrounded by golden cups and has her arms raise so as to encompass the 4 uppermost cups. She seems to be holding 2 of them.
She almost looks as if she is about to scoop up the 4 cups - she's spoiled for choice.

I'm thinking that the mermaid links this card to the realms of fantasy and that's why she is there instead of a human being.
The sevens to me are about overcoming obstacles. They relate to The Chariot and to me they often speak of turning the obstacles we come across into stepping stones.
The sevens are also very magical numbers and are about looking within and testing ourselves - initiation if you like.

So here we have an emotional challenge and the challenge seems to involve a choice.
The challenge seems to me to be to keep things real and not get lost in the land of fantasy.
This card is also about looking within, to see how you really feel and so discover what you really want out of something.

I have had this card show up in readings before as a card of advice and I have taken the image quite literally and advised the person I was reading for to visualise what they want, as if it has already happened (a little bit of magic here).
I like the fact that there is a mermaid on this card as mermaids are very magical creatures so that re-enforces that meaning for me.
 

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Papageno

yep definitely about looking deep inside yourself and a warning not to lose yourself in fantasy.

I pretty much agree with everything but I wanted to add that being "spoiled for choice" may in itself be illusory.

I definitely see the 7/cups as part of the process of overcominng obstacles and the need to make choices.......but I also see "spoiled for choices" as part of the potential for self-deception that's depicted in the card.

I think this card shows us both fantasy and realistic goals.....we have to decide.
taking it a step further, there's real danger in this card.....the danger of wasted effort pursuing unrealistic goals and closing the door on the opportunities that would be most beneficial.

Mermaids.........the Sirens who lured sailors to their deaths as their ships crashed upon the rocks
 

Sulis

Papageno said:
yep definitely about looking deep inside yourself and a warning not to lose yourself in fantasy.

I pretty much agree with everything but I wanted to add that being "spoiled for choice" may in itself be illusory.

I definitely see the 7/cups as part of the process of overcominng obstacles and the need to make choices.......but I also see "spoiled for choices" as part of the potential for self-deception that's depicted in the card.

I think this card shows us both fantasy and realistic goals.....we have to decide.
taking it a step further, there's real danger in this card.....the danger of wasted effort pursuing unrealistic goals and closing the door on the opportunities that would be most beneficial.

Mermaids.........the Sirens who lured sailors to their deaths as their ships crashed upon the rocks

Hi Papageno,

I'd completely forgotten about the sirens luring sailors to their deaths... Another warning then not to get sucked in by fantasies - bit of a dire warning actually.

I got this card in a reading I did for myself last night in the 'what to focus on' position.
I took it to mean that I should focus on overcoming a bit of an emotional hurdle that I'm faced with by making realistic choices.
Don't blow this out of all proportion is what I thought.
I also thought that it was reminding me to look within for the cup of happiness.
 

Papageno

Sulis said:
I also thought that it was reminding me to look within for the cup of happiness.

yep......as I was walking to the subway station this morning it dawned on me........one of those cups may actually be the Ace of Cups itself
 

Papageno

Sulis said:
Hi Papageno,

I'd completely forgotten about the sirens luring sailors to their deaths... Another warning then not to get sucked in by fantasies - bit of a dire warning actually.

it also just occurred to me that the other dire warning is not to keep making the same mistake(s) again.

I think we have a tendency in life to keep reaching for the same cup.....we stubbornly refuse to accept that some things really aren't worth going after.......it's something elusive and it makes you crazy......we fight and insist on making it happen which invariably leads to a half baked victory or disaster

OK maybe this is just me again :rolleyes: but I know I'm not alone
 

Enchanted

Papageno said:
it also just occurred to me that the other dire warning is not to keep making the same mistake(s) again.

I think we have a tendency in life to keep reaching for the same cup.....we stubbornly refuse to accept that some things really aren't worth going after.......it's something elusive and it makes you crazy......we fight and insist on making it happen which invariably leads to a half baked victory or disaster

OK maybe this is just me again :rolleyes: but I know I'm not alone
Nope, not just you! :) :rolleyes: :| Stubborn, I'm like a dog with a bone! :D
Papageno said:
there's real danger in this card.....the danger of wasted effort pursuing unrealistic goals and closing the door on the opportunities that would be most beneficial.
This really is great and sums up very well how I feel about the 7 of cups.
Papageno said:
........one of those cups may actually be the Ace of Cups itself
This is something that I have often wondered myself. If within those 7 cups isn't somewhere the Ace, the Grail. Especially when I saw the 7 of cups from the DruidCraft (image attached below). The way the one cup is standing unnoticed to one side and the six in the water look very illusionary, like with one swish of the water they would disappear, yet it is all that holds his attention. Looking in all the wrong places! Or that old saying about "if it had teeth it would have bitten you" when you are looking for a lost object and then someone else comes along and finds it just like that.

I think the same could be said for this card, as Sulis has pointed out:
Sulis said:
She seems to be holding 2 of them.
She almost looks as if she is about to scoop up the 4 cups
That leaves the one down the bottom, that is slightly out of the mermaids reach and perhaps out of her line of vision too.

But such is the confusion with this card. Sometimes I think that it refers to not so much available choices but really the state of mind that you are in or even just not trusting your own judgement kind of thing. You don't think that you can choose well. For whatever reason you have lost faith in your own ability to choose wisely.
 

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Papageno

Enchanted said:
This is something that I have often wondered myself. If within those 7 cups isn't somewhere the Ace, the Grail. Especially when I saw the 7 of cups from the DruidCraft (image attached below). The way the one cup is standing unnoticed to one side and the six in the water look very illusionary, like with one swish of the water they would disappear, yet it is all that holds his attention. Looking in all the wrong places!

thanks for that DruidCraft image, it makes the point very well.:) (and the art is wonderful)

the description from the Renaissance book describes this card as an indicator of a "time of abundance" "energy flowing in all directions" "the trick here is to relax and wait until the enchantment wears off" " "if you try to keep up with it you will simply exhaust yourself" "many of the promises and possibilities before you may be written on the wind"

to me this 7/cups situation is something you encounter on the transformational path of the 8/cups......it's a cross roads.....there are options and possibilities and decisions must be made.....but not in haste.
 

WooMonkey

Papageno said:
Mermaids...the Sirens who lured sailors to their deaths as their ships crashed upon the rocks

This was my impression of the card also. In a way it is much more subtle than the RWS image, where you can say "gee, that guy really has his head in the clouds, he's really dreaming". The mermaid looks very real, along with what she's offering. At first I thought "Oh, this is a much happier image than the RWS". Then I remembered the stories about the mermaids...
 

Enchanted

It does seem a happier card doesn't it? But then with the mermaid being the element of fantasy, maybe that is a keyword... seems. Perhaps it is a clue to look beyond the superficial level, things may not be as they appear. That whole notion of too good to be true.