January 24-26, 2012: 7 of Cups

Al-Shariyf

DEBAUCH
Seven of Cups

Meditation Pattern: Place Atu III, The Empress, and Atu XIII, Death, side-by-side, with the 7 of Cups above them.

Traditional Description: The seven cups are arranged in two descending triangles above a bottom point. Lotus stems arise from the central lower cup. With the exception of the central lower cup, each cup is overhung by a lotus flower; but no water falls from these into any of the cups, which are all quite empty. Above and below are the symbols of the Decanate Venus and Scorpio.

Netzach of Water: Illusion, deception, error. The mire of false pleasure. Lying, promises unfulfilled; slight success at outset, not retained. If well-dignified: imagination, idea, vision, and the mobilization of the power of visualization to the service of the Will.

Venus/Scorpio: Passionate disposition, strong powers of attraction. Possible success, but neutralized by the supineness of the person; illusionary success, deception in the moment of apparent victory. Lying, error, promises unfulfilled. Drunkenness, substance abuse, wrath, vanity, shame. Lust, fornication, violence against women, selfish dissipation, deception in love and friendship, betrayal, jealousy. Often success gained, but not followed up. Modified as usual by its dignities.

Netzach/Venus + Venus: (Reinforces all Venus traits.)

http://pturing.firehead.org/occult/thelema/libri/The Book of Thoth/thoth/cups07.jpg

Jim Eshelman

I think the understanding of this card benefits from an earlier paragraph in Liber Theta, where I discuss all 7s in general:

"NETZACH (“Victory,” Venus) corresponds to THE FOUR SEVENS. Each of these describes what is required, within its respective element, to attain Victory: valor and enthusiasm in Fire, imagination and creative visualization in Water, cleverness and adaptability in Air, labor and patience in Earth. (This does not deny that negative, even degenerate, aspects may be present as well; they seem to emerge easily, as if from personal weakness, within the Sevens.)"

Both the traditional interpretation of the 7 of Cups (on which most of the recommended interpretation above is based) and Crowley treatment in Book of Thoth miss many positive characteristics that arise from the simple idea that all 7s are an expression of Victory in terms of their respective element or plane.

Jim Eshelman

[attachment=0:1lphh5p5]Cups 7.jpg[/attachment:1lphh5p5]

Al-Shariyf

Boy oh boy was the 3 days of working with this card fun! <sarcasm>

I never quite got the title of this card until now. The impression I get when I look at this arrangement is the feeling of being used up; being a whorish in a metaphorically sexual way, meaning, being very wishy-washy and wanton in mundane affairs and maintaining a "grass is greener over there" way of being.

Interestingly, psychic activity is astonishingly high. I had a dream my grandmother passed away and the next morning I got news someone at my job died. I had an idea for getting a ton of work done in a short amount of time, named it the "power hour", didn't share it with anyone yet someone at a meeting I had last night revealed they had increased their productivity by dedicating an hour to doing the most important things on their to do list. They called it the power hour. Weird.

Lastly, I had a thought while contemplating on the arrangment and it will be a bit difficult to explain here but I'll give it a shot:

Light + Mind produces Thought just like the sound waves of cars passing on a highway near a body of water produce the ripples in the water.

Could be right, could be wrong but I thought it was interesting enough to share. It left quite an impression on me. I felt like I was given an experiential understanding of creative visualization.

Jim Eshelman

It's right. You got it.

Part of the key to that is that "mind" is form, not force. It is the maintenance of various structures. Like a tuning form, these are set in motion when impacted by vibration.

I also here that you've had a couple of days with new life-lessons in desire, especially from a Water perspective.

Al-Shariyf

I certainly have. Two huge ones in particular:

"All I have in this world is my balls and my word..." and not to break them for nobody.
A rock tossed in a pond affects the whole pond.

Jim Eshelman

@Al-Shariyf said

"I certainly have. Two huge ones in particular:

"All I have in this world is my balls and my word..." and not to break them for nobody.
A rock tossed in a pond affects the whole pond."

Amazing.

PS - And think what it does for the rock!

Al-Shariyf

"PS - And think what it does for the rock!"

It drowns and gets all dirty, muddy and mirky in the process. Not fun.

Jim Eshelman

Ha! And people wonder why Crowley was willing to sink to such depths in order to set in motion the most impactful vibrations and echos.

Al-Shariyf

Haha it' IS one hell of an adventure