AT Comparative Study - D - Seven of Cups

[contrascarpe]

AT Comparative Study - D - Seven of Cups

Coupes- Kelche - Copas - Coppe - Cups (Chalices).

The 7th card of the Suit of Cups.

Keywords - Choice, the need to make an informed decision, difficulty in decision-making, imagination.

Decks covered so far:
Aquarian
Tarot of the Animal Lords
Arcus Arcanum
Buckland Romani
Celtic Dragon
Cosmic (2)
DaVinci
Fey
Tarot of the Gnomes
Londa
Medieval Scapini
Tarot of Mermaids
Motherpeace
New Palladini
Tarot of the Old Path
Osho Zen
Secret
Spiral
Universal RWS
Victoria Regina
Winged Spirit
Witches Tarot
Witchy Tarot


Links to other discussions:
Crystal
Egyptian Tarot
General
General
General
General
General
General
Gothic
Margarete Petersen
Phantasmagoric Theater
Tarot of Prague
RWS
RWS
RWS
Secret
Wheel of Change
World Spirit

 

[contrascarpe]

Universal RWS

Symbolism and imagery - An undescript person is standing in front of a cloud where 7 cups are hovering. One contains the face of a beautiful woman, one a shrouded mysterious figure, one a serpent, one a castle, one a pile of jewels, one a victory laurel and the last a dragon.

Comparisons/contrasts with other decks - intentionally left blank - will edit later.

Initial reactions to symbolism/meanings - As stated, decisions, choice, recognizing the good and the evil. Head in the clouds ......

 

[galadrial]

Arcus Arcanum

Symbolism/Imagery

A man stands looking at a scene in a large mirror (the mirror's frame has fish decorating it). The scene is of a table with six cups on it. A couple stands at the end of the table, holding a seventh cup. There is an ocean behind them and the orange of a sunrise/set. By each empty cup on the table are objects- a castle, a fire-breathing dragon, a wreath, gold, a photo of a young woman, and a snake. The cup the couple holds has something in it. That "something" is covered by a cloth and has a golden cloud or mist hanging over it. The couple gaze lovingly at it, obviously prizing it above the other cups.

Comparison

The Seven cups are similar to the RWS ones, though there is no skull with the wreath. The setting is still surreal, but this is shown by being in a mirror rather than in the clouds. The addition of the couple, instead of the cups standing by themselves, is unique.

Impressions

The cups of worldly power/treasure on the table have all been rejected, including the single female in the photo. They are all empty; perhaps he has already drank of them and found them unfulfilling. The lone man looking in the mirror could be seeing the joining of his masculine and feminine natures. The sunlight (concious energy), touching the sea (unconcious energy), seems to emphasize this. The full, covered cup could be his true, whole nature; or his highest, most spiritually enlightened self. He desires to attain this above all else. But this is just a vision in a mirror. He has seen the vision, but whether he can maintain it in his heart and keep this as his hightest emotional goal remains to be seen.

Booklet: "Imagination and dreams reflect an ideal which lacks genuine basis. Wishful thinking or illusion leads to expectations which have been too ambitious or which have been fulfilled too quickly: a moment of fleeting luck is overrated."

 

[September Pixie]

Witchy Tarot

Symbolism and imagery:
2 young witches kneel in the background and drink from a large cauldron while in the foreground a young horned & goat footed male hands another female who is sitting on the ground a snake that is wrapped around her arm. Sky looks to be a bright blue and the grass is a deep, healthy, vibrant green.

Compared to other decks:
Well.. my take on this card is completely different from my gatherings on the Robin Wood deck.. In the Robin Wood I usually find this to be a card of creativity.. a time for day dreaming and a time for creative visualization.. not so with this card.. not to mention the renaming (Cups to Cauldrons) throws me a but at times.

Initial reactions:
Seems this card is that of unions.. celebrations.. possibly new temptations (snake?) green grass meaning growth, blue and purple in this card indicating spiritual.. the brown and greens meaning earth element.. need for grounding?

From the book: A witch's pledge of love:
Engagement, wedding, love, stable and faithful relationship, enthusiastic encounters, realized desires, right decision, celebrations.

Final thoughts:
I know the cups to be a love and emotions suit.. so perhaps a new love interest.. need to be aware of all temptations.. Spiritually ground yourself.. joyous occasion.

 

[hyatt]

Buckland Romani Deck

Symbolism and imagery:
A gypsy woman sits on the ground cross legged with her back to us. She looks into the smoke of the fire, it has seven tea cups each with a different object in it. (flowers,a man, rabbit, covered, snake, jewels, and a wagon). there is a beautiful sunset and she looks longingly towards it and the cups.

Compared to other decks:
It is a woman instead of a man. Very similiar to RW. The card has yellows, greens and blues. It looks like a spring day.

Initial reactions:
I can't help but think that the woman is looking at things that do not exist. Like her life is not exactly what she wants so she is daydreaming abut her wants and desires. The way her head is tilted makes her look sad. But it is spring and maybe there is growth or something new on the horizon.

From the book: Multitude of ideas and interests,castels in the air,scattered forces,impermance
reversed: will and determination,project about to be realized.

 

[September Pixie]

Tarot Of Mermaids

Symbolism and imagery:
A mermaid swimming with her back to us.. there are 7 shells holding a mirage of things.. first is a human head, next is a larger shell, then a snake, then a castle, then ritches, then sea weed, then a frog-like creature that has a fish like tail.. Mermaid is swimming over and into coral and other small fish.. has a sash wrapped around her arms.

Compared to other decks:
The images appearing in the background is a lot like that of the Robin Wood deck.. I find this card has slighly different symbolism to me though. The colors in this card a blue, green, and pink with slight yellow and orange tints in the card.. the colors are MUCH different than th Robin Wood's which uses mostly yellow for this card.

Initial reactions:
Going after your dreams.. Creative thinking.. Knowing what you want and trying to get it.. swiming towards your goals. Looking at the world through rose colored glasses.

From the book:
Artistic inspiration, illusions, happy thought, desire to start anew, hopes and delusions.

 

[mj07]

The Cosmic Tarot

The Seven of Cups displays far more anguish here than in most decks. We ee a man in the middle of the deck in a child's pose, on his knees, arms stretched out in front of him gripping the ground, head down, we cannot see his face. in front of him to the left is one cup with a rose coming out, to the right the cup is half buried in the dirt with worms crawling out of it. Another to the right slighly behind him has a crown in it, the remaining four are spewing out visions. One thing he imagines is the couple from the 6 of cups, a building, possibly a castle, a woman with her eyes closed, a book, fire, sword, pentacle and lastl, in the distance something that may also really exist, a person walking in a beautiful pastoral setting with trees, mountains, perhaps a lake.

I see this guy as not so much being troubled by choices as haunted by memories (reminds me of this card from the Secret Tarots!). He's surrounded himself with them, cannot control them, he's in pain. However, none of these "things" actually exist and if he'd just control his emotions, he could get up and enjoy the otherwise beautiful surroundings that the person in the distance obviously is!

 

[mercenary30]

The Egyptian Tarot by Alasia

We did this card in our short Egyptian Tarot study group....

here is the link.....

Seven of Chalices

 

[Melvis]

Leonardo da Vinci Tarot

DESCRIPTION:
An old man kneels looking to the viewer's left, offering a strange-looking chalice up to a baby held in the arms of someone the viewer can't see. The seven cups are in the upper right corner of the card, and do not play a part in the scene we see.

COMPARISON:
Unlike RWS-style cards in that the seven cups are not part of the 'illusion' the person in this card sees.

ANALYSIS:
My first thought is that the child we see is not real in terms of the old man kneeling before it. I think the child is part of a 'Madonna and Child' statue, and the old man mistakes it for a real child, or perhaps even the Christ child.

The LWB says: Revelation. Supernatural vision. Halluciantion. Mistake of the senses.

Peace,

Melvis

 

[Imagemaker]

I didn't notice if anyone else mentioned that the two cards drawn together were 7s. And the chariot carries people/things as a cup carries liquid--and does that mean *anything*?

Anyway, I pulled out 9 decks and sorted out the 7 cups card from each, noting that I like the variation of the words chalice and cauldron--those seem more elegant than "cups."

For me this card relates to "imaginings"--which can mean wonderful creative fantasies or horrible anxieties.

Decks with cups shown:
1. In the Spiral deck, the cups are filled with colors like bowls of paint--no items such as skull or snake or laurel wreath. A woman gazes at the cups, holding an umbrella in a rain--a rainbow of choices after the storm? This seems a relatively positive card of imaginings.

2. In the Acquarian deck, there's no person, just 7 cups with a selection of items--fruit, rainbow, head (not a skull), a flower, a hard diving helmet (?), and a hand holding what might be a flower bud. Unusual items.

3. Victoria Regina tends to the horrible imaginings with flying monkey heads above the empty mason jars. The moon (a face) is drinking a martini, perhaps, and the woman is worried or wary.

4. Motherpeace shows a woman carrying a huge bowl on her head, which fountains green into 6 cups--a form of imagining what is going into cups, I guess. A white dove is over her head.

5. In Tarot of the Old Path, a man sits on the bank as 3 women stand in water, another's hands reach into the picture, they each hold 1 or 2 cups. They're all imagining, perhaps, but we hve no clue what.

6. In the Fey tarot, the number of items on a minors card is not shown--so the 7 cups has only 1 floating cup with a dragon/snake arching out of it. A fey sits below, looking towards it, but s/he is covered in clothes and a top hat, we can't tell how he is reacting to this "vision."

7. The Londa tarot shows a woman holding a finger to her chin as though thinking as she contemplates a stack of cups, and holds the 7th. They are empty. The card merely conveys thinking to me, not good or bad items.

Decks with no cups:
1. Osho zen shows 4 faces--a man looking at a woman and a shadow form of each, more "devilish" perhaps for the man's shadow. The keyword is "projections"--a good summation of the 7 cups, I think, of how we project our imaginings onto others.

2. Tarot of the animal lords shows a bird-headed figure on a winged horse, leaping from one grassy cliff to the other, across a gulf/abyss/chasm. It doesn't look like an intense effort--the horse is flying more than it's jumping. Leaps of the imagination, perhaps?

Of all the cards we've looked at so far, the range of "moods" of these varies much more than other cards. If you're picking a deck for a reading, consider the mood of the 7 cups as a clue to what the deck might have to say.