Among your many options, choose the one closest to your heart.

The Seven of Cups refers to works of the imagination, the use of dream and vision to invent a future different from the life one is currently living. Our outcomes are not set in stone. As we raise our hopes and expectations, we get better outcomes. If a person is calm and focused, Seven of Cups indicates a genuinely magical quality of awakened imagination. You need to harmonize what you want and what is possible now. Relax your mind and open to the dreams that your inner child loves to entertain. Allow yourself to imagine a truly positive outcome any situation. Let go of your fears; you will achieve a higher confidence in yourself and in what you are doing. Even if it’s only a temporary break from your fears, this is a helpful exercise because it gives your psyche and body a dose of unlimited thinking and optimism. Think positively — the results could indeed be amazing.

General Meaning

The appearance of the Seven of Cups indicates the presence of different possibilities, but their abundance is confusing. A person is unclear what solution would be the best to take. Seven of Cups may be a sign of false hopes, unrealizable desires, or false promises.

A person might not understand what he or she really wants: wishful thinking –  the cups filled with different illusory visions, and there is a dark figure in foreground which is a symbol of perplexity. There is nothing definite and substantial.

In business, Seven of Cups indicates that success is more of an illusion, and shows instability of achievements. Seven of Cups is a card of fog and mirages. We give in false hopes, and a wake-up call of a disappointment is coming. A person is to overcome temptations. Seven of Cups next to the Magical or the Devil tells that someone is manipulating a person and uses a person for his purposes.

Ancient meaning of Sevens of Cups represent dreams and doubts of a person, and a person ponders what to choose while making a false choice. All these gifts he receives are just a temptation, an illusion. Chasing mirages end in emptiness. A person thinks he or she knows all the possible options, and he or she needs to choose one of them. But, on the contrary, in this case, a person must find another option, completely different and yet unknown. Thus, a person has to postpone deciding until a better time.

If Seven Swords are we deceiving, Seven of Cups we are deceived . With the Seven of Cups, we dream of different scenarios. An image of our success is essential. A person should first imagine that everything is possible. So imagining a desire is a good idea. Seven of Cups tells that a person can “see the pie”, yet cannot get it.

Sometimes Seven Cups describes a bad company of friends.

The energy of the Seven of Cups is inspiring, motivating a person to act, saying that a person has a choice. The Seven of Cups tells that help is on the way from people or sources we least expect to.

Personal Feelings

“Eyes are wondering.” “I do not know what I want.” Confusion is due to a presence of several different possibilities equally undetermined.

There are many desires and options. It’s hard to prioritize, understand a goal and move forward. In conjunction with Swords, Seven of Cups shows an internal conflict. The abundance of fresh, but vague ideas, and at the same time, nothing specific, permanent, or substantial. A person creates castles in the air. The lack of realism, yet high creative energy.

A person gets into a flow of imagination. This is a condition when a person dream-waking, while his imagination carries him into the unknown. This contemplation is unfocused and un-controlled meditation. A mind explores new possibilities and searches for a better understanding of real needs of a soul; the creation of newer happier purposes.

A person needs a longer sleep and mindful meditation to restore a balance of his energy and to dive into the world of enlightenment.

Seven of Cups is an escape from everyday life, escape from problems and emotions, altering a state of consciousness.

Seven of Cups can be defined as “a dream of a soul” in which a person accumulates powers, indulging in dreams. Contemplating of an inner world, a person listens to signs and prophetic thoughts that being a revival.

Sometimes Seven of Cups can bring tears if a person cannot take dreams of unattained ideals.

Seven of Cups can represent a creative person, full of imagination and live in an unreal beautiful world of fantasy. Living in a dream is not the worst place in the universe. Humanity would have been lost if nobody believed in the wonderland.

Seven of Swords can show a person with psychic powers.

People say a person of Seven of Cups could possess demonic attraction, playing with people’s lives, always changing partners.

A person with a string of fantasy still has to make a right choice. This “Enchanted Wanderer” builds castles in the air. His cleverness can be inherent in, yet his laziness, indulgence, and project-mongering much dearer to his heart than a real effort. A person gladly listens to those who draw a bright future for him. Filadoro writes: “Wild wind of imagination turns the mind like a weather vane, pointing it to dreams, temptations and frivolous plans. A person needs to restore the relationship with reality, starting with the simplest of its foundations. ”

In the worst case scenario, the Seven of Cups indicates exposures to temptations and reckless indulgence. The darkest side of the card can be alcoholism, drug addiction, dependence on the Internet. In short, everything which replaces one reality with the other.

Laziness, lack of initiative and a tendency to go with the flow without any efforts.

In the psychoanalytic sense, the Cups Seven matches regression: the unconscious infantile desire to become a child again and immerse into oneself and to return to childish behavior. Search for meditative and transcendental experience becomes just an escape from everything: reality, responsibilities, duties.

Literary character, relevant Seven of Cups, we can assume Dorian Gray – Crowley writes, “external luster with an inner decomposition.”

On a Deeper Level

Seven of Cups is a power of imagination, giving a taste of life waking dreams, castles in the air, where the soul finds its shelter.

Having enchantment dreams and strong feelings is vital. We need to be fascinated with our ideas, to see the light in everything that enters our lives. This is a kind of magic that makes grey days look fantastic. The mystery of Seven of Cups shall always be in our perception, – brighter and greater. Turn off all the magic of the Seven of Cups – and life becomes flat and empty.

Seven of Cups is a fusion of the imaginary and the real. Seven of Cups shows our passionate desires, imagination without borders, magic, and sorcery. In fact, the Seven of Cups with all its illusions and waking dreams poses the questions – “What is happiness to you? What delights you and why? And What, in fact, are your dreams and worries about? What attracts and excites your soul?…”

Seven of Cups questions what is “happiness” to us. We find illusory nature of our beliefs and wants. A large number of people over the centuries got their dreams come true, – yet for some reason getting what they craved for did not make them happy.  Sometimes people say that their lives became “worse than it was before.”

Seven of Cups may represent a person in search of spiritual knowledge, whether it is a practice of concentration and meditation, spiritual contemplation, prayer, or a search for inner self. A person experiences some mystical (or, at least, quite subtle and unusual) experience; a person finds an interest in the esoteric arts; a person is in a search for a meaning of his life. Music, film, photography also sometimes can cause a profoundly emotional experience, bringing up inspiration and revelation. Sometimes a person can see signs of destiny.

Seven of Cups is a warning card. Dreams and fantasies could provide short-term comfort, yet do not give enough willpower for personal spiritual development.

Seven is a number of an examination and a test.

A similar test has undergone by heroes in many fairy tales, getting into an enchanted place where everything seems so perfect that they would forget about their path and purpose. They would remember why they need to look for something or to rescue someone because at the moment life seems so high. But as a hero is walking through enchanted gardens immersed in pleasures, he loses time, forgetting about his spiritual journey. Arthur Edward Waite called the Seven of Cups “favors the fairies.”

Seven of Cups depicts symbols of flaws that occur when feelings are manifested through the edge: it is self-deception, selfishness, pride, jealousy, envy, sloth and greed. There are different opinions about the relationship between images in cups and temptations. For example, a gold crown could symbolize attraction of fame and vanity sin; a castle high on a cliff could symbolize self-love and arrogance. Female head corresponds to sex and lust. Gems can be associated with wealth and avarice. Someone behind the veil may represent an opportunity to relax. Snake can represent gluttony and drunkenness, and the winged dragon can represent jealousy and rage.
In an interpretation of Pamela Smith cups contain symbols of love (female), wisdom (the snake), holiness (figure in the veil), power (castle), wealth (gems), glory (laurel wreath) and evil (the dragon).

Another interpretation of a snake is jealousy and suspicion, and of a figure covered in a veil is unconscious spiritual aspirations, thought a person frozen in confusion before an important choice. Just imagine – if you can get everything? Would you refuse fame for the sake of love, wealth for spiritual insights? And so on. Seven of Cups seems to influence all the signs and all the planets. Above them, there is a predominant effect of Neptune as a planet associated with ideas.

Feelings take precedence over reasoning and intuition.

To move further in the process of learning is essential to be careful in our affections and leave no room for the weakness of a character.

Overcoming inertia of senses, human consciousness dispels gray clouds and appears on a threshold of discoveries.

Sometimes Seven of Cups is associated with a spiritual initiation.

Light and Shadow

Advice: use your imagination, it will help you to find a good solution. Contemplate and meditate, to be “An Enchanted Wanderer”. Relax and follow your vision, not mending obstacles and enjoying its fruits. Think of your unfulfilled dreams and fantasies, give your soul a vacation.

Shadow: imagination is now prone to extravagance. It will be a trap to follow it, not analyzing anything. Open your eyes! If you do not begin to act realistically, you run a risk of being left with nothing.

Personal Relations

You are in love. Wool-loving dreams, sweet clouds of mist. You might have some misconceptions about existing relationships: a person sees what is not, and does not understand what is. Rose-colored glasses.

One of the partners or both is not entirely honest. A person assigns certain qualities to an object of his love (“buried in projections”) . A person may be engaged in self-deception.

A person dreams of a “big pure love” being obsessed with high hopes and credulity … A person is fascinated and bewitched by love. Look for surrounding cards to discover how relations will go.

Seven of Cups is always excessive, always over the edge: excessive pleasures, sharpness, and depth of sexual experiences leading a person to dependence (followed by Eight of Cups). We swallow poison, like delightful nectar, and then indulge in regrets (Eight of Cups).

In a favorable card combination, Seven of Cups can be emotionally intoxicating, bringing inspiring creativity and bearing a sense of “drunk with joy” (but also creating a strong emotional dependence).

Desires are strong and sharp. A person is genuinely affectionate, and tend to fall into a kind of emotional addiction from a partner. If next to the Seven of Cups in a spread we can see the Moon or the Devil – a person completely crazy about his or her partner – and goes over a hormonal hurricane.

A person radiates quite strong magnetic gravity, which is unrelated to his or her appearance, age, social status. A person is intoxicating others by his presence because he exudes obscene vibes.

Ancient interpreters believed that the Seven of Cups symbolizes success in love, attractiveness, and personal charm.

Reversed Seven of Cups

Reversed Seven of Cups indicates that a person once made a false choice, and now scales fell from his eyes, and a person understands his mistakes. Looking beyond disappointments, a person is ready to correct errors and able to make a right choice.

Now a person has sufficient inner strength to resist temptations. The main lesson of this card is to believe in oneself and escape from imaginary desires.

A person can review his desires and start creating a realistic and feasible plan for success.

Etteilla Finds a meaning of Direct Seven of Cups – very positive, – love and happiness. As a reversed image, it says about planning. His perspective on this card is rather positive.

Alister Crowley calls Seven of Cups a Debauch. The lesson of Seven of Cups is to realize false promises and delusions and keep away from intoxicating feelings. No fresh water input because of fears of losing.