April 16, 2010 - The Seven of Cups

Look at the Seven of Cups and you see the dream -- so many choices, what to choose?  It's a dream world, the fertile lands of imagination.  It's those two birds in the bush (or in this case seven) as opposed to the one in the hand that never looks as good.

Joan Bunning writes at her site, learntarot.com, this is the card of letting things go, the sloppy, impractical, and lax.  In a world of rigid rules, control, order, and 'just right,' the Seven of Cups tips the scale in the other direction.  The breaking up of rigid order can often produce bursts of creativity.  On the other hand, too much chaos can lead to dissipation.  As always, the Tarot encourages balance, walking the middle road.

In the Jane Austen Tarot, the Seven of Cups depicts Harriet Smith, the young woman of unknown parentage that Emma Woodhouse takes under her wing.  Harriet Smith is not particularly clever and she is easily swayed.  An amiable young woman, she can be encouraged in the best directions or the worst, depending.  Emma encourages Harriet to think more of herself than her circumstances suggest.  On the Seven of Cups, Harriet sits at tea and in her thoughts all the eligible bachelors of Highbury circle, as if any could be hers once she settled on one.

Harriet Smith illustrates an important aspect of the Seven of Cups, fantasy versus reality, castles in the air versus comfortable houses on the ground.  This is particularly relevant for me.  I'm a storyteller.  I live on and by 'what ifs'.  I spin scenarios to conclusions, probable and possible and it's hard to differentiate between fiction and reality.  I have lived relationships myriad times to various conclusions in the span of minutes or hours.  Instead to the here and now, it seems easiest for me to future.  And this kite may have a tail but it's still high in the sky, head in the clouds.

I am working hard not to let my thoughts run away with me, to keep my feet on the ground, my heart firmly in my chest.  It still takes quite a bit of effort to force my thoughts back to the here and now when they fast forward to some 'happily ever after' future I imagine (or worse case scenario ... I do both equally well).  I'm hoping it gets easier with practice.  I hope my inner Harriet Smith can come to trust her heart and choose the love of a good and true man as opposed to the dream of perfect and prince, the possible, however improbable.  I guess will see as the year unfolds if I am not just older, but wiser.  I'll keep you posted.