7 of Cups yes or no

Do you have high hopes? Are you working on getting where you want to be by sitting around on the couch? Do people tell you that your dreams are just illusions? Are you greedy but not willing to work for what you most desire? Do you have a plan to get rich quickly? Are you tempted to have an affair? Did you cheat on a diet or exercise plan and stick to the script that obesity is just in your genes? The Seven of Cups is a card that appears in tarot readings when what you desire has no connection with your ability to get it or when temptation offers temporary pleasures that could bring permanent damage. Talk about the Seven of Cups as feelings!

Sevens are not considered unwelcome in a spread, but they do bring some sort of obstacle with them. Let’s take a closer look at what that means should Seven of Cups appear in your tarot spread. 

Seven of Cups Meaning 

The Seven of cups meaning entails a lot of details. A silhouetted figure stands in the foreground of the card, looking deep into it. Under a blue sky, a swirling cloud has rolled in, and on it rests seven cups. Each cup is filled with a different illusion. There is a castle, jewelry, a victor’s laurel wreath crown, a woman, a glowing body rising as if from the dead, a snake, and a dragon. Many different variations on these cups’ contents exist in the myriad tarot decks available to your card reader. However, these are the most common and recurring ones to appear.

In the tarot, The Suit of Cups represents emotions, and the cups’ contents signify temptation. Are you after the material gains represented by the castle, the beauty represented by the jewelry, or the power of life and death itself, as defined by the raised body? Or, perhaps you exhibit lust as represented by the woman, or you seek the glory only a laurel wreath can indicate? 

Seven of Cups Positioning 

When a tarot reading commences, the cards are all placed in specific areas based on when they are pulled from the deck. These positions represent your past, your present, and your future. A card’s meaning changes based on its location in a reading — including whether or not it’s upright or reversed.

Upright 

Cups are the emotional suit, so in the upright version of The Seven of Cups, the obstacle lies in deciding when there are too many choices or putting daydreaming to better use (such as making those dreams come true). Generally, this card is a hint that you’ll get past whatever obstacle is there.

Reversed 

Obstacle alert. The Seven of Cups reversed turns daydreams into procrastination and illusions, lies and denial. It’s also a card that can signal a lack of dreams and creativity. Either you’re refusing to decide on something, or you feel as though you’re at a dead end with no resolution in sight. 

Past Position  

When The Seven of Cups is in the past position, it’s an indicator that your pursuits of pleasure have brought you to where you are today. So, if you’re not where you should be in life, you have nobody to blame but yourself. Pleasure-seeking may mean you are pursuing a life of selfishness at the core. A past based on narcissistic pursuits doesn’t typically lead to a solid present or future.

Present Position 

In the present position, the Seven of Cups card indicates that you are being sidetracked by desire instead of staying the course in a healthy relationship or ongoing project. For example, many people drop out of school when they are tempted by the easy path of partying and a steady meager paycheck. 

Alternatively, some individuals are obsessed with proving they can seduce the opposite sex whether or not he/she is married and without considering the damage they are doing to themselves and others. What may look fun and tempting is seldom as enjoyable as it seems, and yet the cost is often higher in personal suffering than we ever imagined.

Future Position 

In the future position, this card is not menacing at all. Temptations, in this case, may even be motivators of something good coming your way somewhere down the road. It’s possible that you are tempted to continue on a current path out of self-interest. While the card may tempt someone to drop out of school when it is in the present position, in the future, it can cause greed that one can only satisfy by staying in school to get a higher paying job. The Seven of Cups is definitely a character-building card. 

Seven of Cups Card Combinations 

Your tarot reading includes many cards, and they all influence each other. The shift in meaning can be subtle, and it can be intense, depending on the combination.

Positive Inspiration: The Seven of Cups is the lower echo of two cards in the Major Arcana: The Chariot (card #7) and The Star (card #17). The Chariot represents the victory of manifesting something that you’ve always wanted. The Star represents the inspiration to pursue a particular course in life. If either of these cards appears in a reading with The Seven of Cups, desire and motivation are intensified while pleasure-seeking is lessened.

Manipulation: The Magician is a card associated with illusions, and if it appears in a reading with The Seven of Cups, you might be the person who is tempting others by manipulating their desires. 

Denial: With the Three of Swords present, your pursuit of illusion is in response to a broken heart, no matter how firm your denials. It’s a symbolic Seven of Cups love match.

Self-Destruction: When paired with The Nine of Pentacles, your attempt to keep up with the Joneses has a self-destructive side as you go into further debt to keep up appearances.

Irresponsibility: When The Seven of Cups is in the same reading as The Sun, someone else is paying the bills, and you are taking full advantage of having a second childhood with few foreseeable consequences.

Interested In Exploring More Tarot In The Suit of Cups? 

The tarot deck has four suits of cards that describe the fundamental ways in which we all take in experiences: thought, feeling, creativity, and material reality. A tarot reading with many cards from the suit of Cups is about emotions. However, if there is just one card from this suit among the many in your reading, your feelings are not playing a big role in your life at this time. 

Not to worry. A Keen advisor can help you navigate the roadblocks that are preventing you from feeling balanced. Book a Seven Cups tarot session with one of our experienced tarot readers and get your life back on track. 

Keen Editorial Staff

Keen's Editorial Staff is made up of world-class writers, astrologers, psychics, and advisors with diverse experience and spiritual sensitivity.