Seven of Cups

[Kit]

I don't know if this has been brought up before, but I couldn't find a similar thread when I searched.
The seven of cups...has seven cups on it! No I'm not being stupid- I'm just looking at what is in the cups. The seven of cups is often taken to sybolise our often unattainable or unrealistic dreams and desires. So what are these, according to Waite?
We have: a face, a castle, jewels, a wreath, a dragon, a snake and...something else. What is the something else (the glowing thing under the cloth)? Any guesses?
Here's my take on it: The face is beauty, the castle is property, the jewels are wealth, the wreath is victory, the dragon is (?) power...No ideas about the snake and hidden thing...
That is my extremely humble opinion...what is everyone else's?
Raeven

[poivre]

snake - wisdom
what's hidden - unknown future

Just a guess.

[Kit]

Nice one, ros- I like it. Don't know why the snake as wisdom didn't occur to me before...
There's something very secretive about that covered cup.
Raeven

[Flavio]

As the character staring at the cups is a man, I assumed that the cover of the cup is a bride veil... we all want to find the love of our lives and marry him/her, isn't it?

[CreativeFire]

From memory so don't quote me - (read somewhere but can't remember where!)

Castle - security
Jewels - wealth
Snake - sexuality
Wreath - success
Dragon - power
'Head' - self
Glowing white draped figure - spiritual

CreativeFire

[poivre]

In Numerology and The Divine Triangle by Dusty Bunker
"...seven cups filled with symbols of the gifts and tests to be handled during this life. These seven are: vanity, fame, ego, illusion, jealousy,frivolity and glamour."
"... it is realized that they do not bring happiness or any real value in life."

Also I think I read somewhere the cups represented the
Seven Deadly Sins but that may be for the Thoth Deck ???

[Flavio]

Originally Posted by CreativeFire

From memory so don't quote me - (read somewhere but can't remember where!)

Castle - security
Jewels - wealth
Snake - sexuality
Wreath - success
Dragon - power
'Head' - self
Glowing white draped figure - spiritual

Sorry creative fire I quoted you

Originally Posted by ros

"...seven cups filled with symbols of the gifts and tests to be handled during this life. These seven are: vanity, fame, ego, illusion, jealousy,frivolity and glamour."
"... it is realized that they do not bring happiness or any real value in life."

Thank you for sharing. I find very interesting this two takes on the same card, I've used it to express the experience of desiring something better to daydream castles in the air or see the things as we want to see them and not as they are.

Now I think I could use CreativeFire take for upright position and ros take as reversed position I feel doing that a lot of depth is given to this card.

[contradiction]

is it just me, or on the cup with the wreath, is there a reflection, of a skull? if so what is the significance? could it be the reflection of the man, (we can only see his back). i am thinking it says all of the cups, or at least this one are in the future.

[Rusty Neon]

Originally Posted by Raeven

The seven of cups is often taken to sybolise our often unattainable or unrealistic dreams and desires. So what are these, according to Waite?

In _Pictorial Key to the Tarot_, regarding 7 of Cups, Waite writes:

Strange chalices of vision, but the images are more especially those of the fantastic spirit.

Divinatory Meanings: Fairy favours, images of reflection, sentiment, imagination, things seen in the glass of contemplation; some attainment in these degrees, but nothing permanent or substantial is suggested.

Reversed: Desire, will, determination, project.

[Fulgour]

fairy favours

Over hill, over dale,
Thorough bush, thorough brier,
Over park, over pale,
Thorough flood, thorough fire!
I do wander everywhere,
Swifter than the moon's sphere;
And I serve the Fairy Queen,
To dew her orbs upon the green;
The cowslips tall her pensioners be;
In their gold coats spots you see;
Those be rubies, fairy favours;
In those freckles live their savours;
I must go seek some dewdrops here,
And hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear.


William Shakespeare