Welcome back to My Tiny Tarot Practice. I'm Amelia Hruby, and this podcast documents

my tiny tarot practice as I explore the tarot card by card, beginning with each suit of the

minor arcana. Today's card is the Seven of Cups. In the Rider-Waite-Smith version of the tarot,

the Seven of Cups has a figure in the foreground. They're facing away from us. They're kind of

blacked out, shadowed out in the card. And in front of them, farther away in the card,

are seven cups floating in the clouds. Each cup is full of a different thing. There's a floating

head. There's a cloth covering what looks to be a divine image, I would guess, perhaps Jesus

Christ. There's a snake, there's a castle on a cliff, there's a cup full of jewels and

baubles, there's a cup full of a wreath, there's a cup with what looks to be a dragon inside.

Each cup presents a different offering, and there are seven of them, the seven of cups floating

on this cloud in front of this figure. And I agree with Jessica Dorr's interpretation here

that the seven of cups implies a choice. The figure has like one hand out like outstretched

to like select a cup and obviously they cannot hold all seven cups at once so they're going to

and a half to choose.

And this card then is often interpreted as the challenge of choice, as what do we do when there

are so many options in front of us? It's also, I think, because these cups are in the cloud,

seen as a card of daydream or fantasy. And Jessa Crispin in the Creative Tarot says that with the

Seven of Cups, we see, quoting, the difference between fantasy and the imagination. For her,

fantasy is detached from reality, but the imagination is a creative tool that we can

use to change our reality. Jessica Dorr interprets the card similarly, talking about how we can

imagine all sorts of things, but if we intentionally imagine toward the reality we want, we can start

to change our material circumstance. And so when I look at the Seven of Cups, I'm always

I'm always reminded of both the expansive and contractive nature of choice.

The way that having many choices is a gift and perhaps a curse.

How do we know what to choose?

And I think with the Seven of Cups, with some interpretations I feel this pressure

to like pick the right one, but I prefer to liberate myself

and remind myself that any choice can be a right choice.

It's made with intention and care. Looking at this card I'm not sure it matters if I choose the snake or the cliff or the wreath or any of these

things. I think it's more about channeling intention through our choices.

Imagining possibilities not simply as fantasies that could never happen for us

or could only happen for other people but as real possibilities for our own lives.

I recently drew this card in a reading for myself and I interpreted it as a reminder

that sometimes when I feel stuck, the medicine for that is to imagine many different possible outcomes.

In a different context, I might choose this card and think, oh yeah, I feel really confused

because I have so many possible outcomes.

Again, it's that expansive and contractive quality. Sometimes the expansiveness is what feels

more comfortable and supportive.

Sometimes the contraction is what feels more comfortable and supportive.

The Seven of Cups meets us in that undulating place of choice and options and possibilities and imagination, even in fantasy.

Thank you so much for tuning in to this episode of My Tiny Tarot Practice.

If you'd like to find any of the books that I mentioned here, you can head to the show notes.

I've got a link to my bookshop where I curate my favorite books on tarot

as well as decks and all sorts of tarot and magical things.

You can definitely find Jessica Dora's tarot for change and Jessica Crispin's, the creative tarot there.

If you make a purchase through that link, I'll receive a small affiliate payment

that helps me keep making this podcast.

I appreciate that in today's Seven of Cups podcast world where you have so many episodes to choose from

and listen to that you chose this show and this episode.

Thank you for joining me in this Seven of Cups moment.

Much love and more soon.