Clarity after some confusion 🌪 Seven of Cups Reversed
Tarot for the week of 13/03/23 🕳Peeling away the mask and the recent drag ban in Tennessee
Hello all.
Back to your regularly scheduled tarot programming. Every Monday, I swear to god.
How did last week's Virgo Full Moon treat you all? For me I got the spring-like surge to work on projects put to bed over the winter months. And the deep itch to start farming. After all these months, my beloved and I start at our new farm in just two days! Excited is an understatement.
So in the theme of little actions adding up (last week’s, if you missed it), I have been putting together some additional material for my paid subscribers. Coming out just after this will be a breakdown of the coming transit of Venus in Taurus and what it means when navigating abundance this spring. Interested in diving a little deeper?
Ok, shameless self-promo aside, the card I pulled for this week is a potent one.
Tarot for the week of 13/03/23: Seven of Cups Reversed
When I say I don’t get this card often I mean it has shown up all of once in the past seven years of me reading tarot. And I have read a whole lot of tarot in that time. Independently I have studied the card separately, stared at the various forms coming from the cup considered the cards on either side and the whole of the journey. And yet, in readings, it just does not appear.
In some ways, I take this to be a good thing. Most of the interactions I am dealing with are to be taken at face value, but it also feels all the more prescient when it does come up. And when it’s reversed, my gods!
Sorry, that was terribly vague. Let’s get into it…
The Seven of Cups depicts a figure who is presented with many options, or cups. The cups seem to have appeared before them in a puff of smoke and within each of them is a different item. In the context of the other sevens in the Minor Arcana, which represent the obstacles or challenges that need to be overcome to achieve our goals, the Seven of Cups is about emotional challenges. This card seems to warn us that we must not choose only from our heart when we encounter obstacles and that everything is not what it seems.
One illustration of this is the cup with the laurel wreath in it. Laural wreaths can be traced back to ancient Greece where they were given as symbols of triumph to those who had won athletic competitions. At first, this may seem like a good road to take, but the skull that appears on the cup hints at the perils of vanity and greed. The winning at all costs. Within each of the other cups lie the other options. The snake, if taken in the Christian contests depicts knowledge, however, forbidden. The dragon is likely to symbolise ruin, the tower seems to be that of stability or homecoming, the head I see as the mask we show the world, with its counter the shrowd being the selves we can cast off, the treasure seems like abundance. Of course, there are so many other interpretations of each of the seven. I would love to hear what each of them means to you.
The general interpretation of the Seven of Cups is difficulty finding the difference between truth and reality. It also speaks of temptations and wishful thinking, as if the way to make your way in the world can be solved by one choice, one stroke of luck. I often associate this card with the way genies or fairies make wishes come true. The phrase be careful what you wish for has never been more true. You may think you are taking a simple option, an easy route, but the costs will come in much higher than you ever expected to pay.
And yet, I hear you say, it’s in reverse. The card is flipped, the meaning is something else. And damn, you’re right!
In the reversed configuration the Seven of Cups often indicated a time of clarity after a period of confusion. It’s as if the clouds have cleared, the fog lifts and there before you is what you’ve been missing. In the reverse, I think of this card having all the trappings and illusions tipped out of the cups, they spill away revealing only the little truths at the bottom. There still will be challenges, the card assures you of it. But there is a much clearer way to see through them now. To work with what you have, know and can handle.
This makes me think of the peeling back of how the Working Class are treated the world over. The options apparently laid before everyone in the lie that is imperialist capitalism, torn away the moment they are tested. The freedom that falls flat the moment that someone who does not conform to the cis-hetero white-supremacist patriarchy dares to exist, or heaven forbid, thrive. I’m thinking now of the violent and tyrannical anti-drag ban that has passed in Tennessee, with other bans being proposed across this bullshit nation.
The Seven of Cups are the lies politicians tell to regulate bodies they do not deem acceptable. It’s the masks worn to promote hatred and claim it is in the service of protection. It’s the laurel crown through and through, the chasing of power and control to the detriment of all else. It’s the shroud, the untold repercussions of this all-out attack on being trans, the calling for “eradication”, and the effect that will have on trans youth and adults.
And with this latest ban, the cards have been played. The fog lifts and anyone suffering under the illusion that politicians have your best interests at heart, hopefully, has that illusion shattered. It’s clear to see now where people stand. And it’s your choice where you do. Who you stand with.
At times like this, it is important to refresh yourself on ways to be a good ally and accomplice to transgender people. According to a tracker of all the proposed legislation for the coming year, a staggering 400+ Anti-LGBTQ+ bills have been proposed. Each of these needs to be fought by people on the ground, contacting representatives, organising within communities and tackling hate at the root. The Animal Welfare Institute has a pretty thorough breakdown of how to communicate effectively with legislators.
Thinking about something like this, after the shitstorm of the overturning of Roe vs Wade, it feels hard to reign it back in. To bring this back to the personal, the tangible. And honestly, I don’t want to. Tarot isn’t only an inward journey, and what is the point in knowing ourselves if we don’t notice others along the way? What they are going through, and how we can help. Journaling prompts for this week are just this tweet.
As always I am available for Written and Zoom Tarot Readings. Readings via voice note are also available. If you’re interested in getting a reading but have no idea what to ask here is a selection of questions I have answered in my time to get you thinking.
Interested? All my offerings are sliding scale to make them as accessible as possible. I am also always available to chat and always open to trade etc.
Catch you in the ether,
M
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