Making Choices and Finding Meaning with the VII of Cups

Back in the day (we’re talking the 10s here, remember then?!), I used to write blog posts that related the tarot cards to my current life situation. I’d pick a card that was resonating with me at that time and explain how what was happening with me showed up the in meaning of that tarot card.

As I come to the 10th anniversary of having this blog, I’ve been rereading some of those old blog posts. And they are quite fun! I’m inspired to take up the practice again and write about a card that has been coming up for me recently in my daily readings on Instagram and personal monthly readings. It definitely feels like it has something important to tell me at this time in my life - the VII of Cups.

VII of Cups from the Rider Waite Smith tarot deck

The VII of Cups is all about having options and making choices. Usually there are too many options which makes it hard to make those choices. Then analysis paralysis sets in. What if you choose wrong? What if you get hurt? What if you fail? Or what if you are tricked and look foolish?

I’m currently at a point in my life where I feel like I have many paths forward I could take, but I’m not really sure which one to take. I see all these tantalizing possibilities before me and I’m stalled- which one is the best? Which one is going to work out? Which one will take me where I want to be? I’m not sure how to get to where I want to be.

So where do I want to get? I would like The Willow Path Tarot as a business to support me financially. Even after 10 years of working at it, I haven’t gotten even close to that point. This doesn’t make me want to give up, I just know I need to take a new approach- but which one?

I recently lost my latest day job as a freelance contract worker at a library software startup. My contract was up, and it didn’t get renewed, which bummed me out because I enjoyed the work. Now I need to find a new day job, which is a reminder once again that I’ve not succeeded at creating a flourishing tarot business. What path forward leads to a sustainable and profitable financial situation for me? The mystery remains. Do I push hard to make this finally business take off, or do I earn money some other way and let this continue to be my great love and creative outlet?

The VII of Cups is a card about daydreaming and fantasizing, oftentimes at the detriment of taking action. There’s a whole lot of wishing and hoping going on, but no movement towards manifesting those ideals. This could be because you don’t want to make the wrong decision and fail or because so many options look good- it’s too hard to close the door on one idea in favor or another.

VII of Cups from the Shadowscapes Tarot deck.

I sure do a lot of daydreaming about this business and about writing. I think about what I could do and come up with lists of ideas and even whole action plans. Then I do nothing. Or not very much at least. There is so much resistance. Some of it is fear of success, of being seen, and having to show up authentically. And some of it is overwhelm in the face of too many ideas- what to write about first, what to put on the backburner for now. I don’t want to scatter my focus, but then I choose nothing to focus on at all.

I love to write, but I also kind of hate it. I think this is a very familiar sentiment to most of the writers out there. Someone or other is quoted as saying: “I hate to write, but I love having written.” I feel like that a lot of the time. So there’s resistance to writing as it can be so painful to get anything out, but it’s this idealized thing that is the best option… but the hardest. That points to a much needed mindset shift to believe that writing is easy and natural, not some insurmountably difficult obstacle. With the VII of Cups, there are so many paths forward to follow my heart, but emotions are getting all tied up in knots and ideas are trapped in my head.

I have so many thoughts and ideas about what to write, and so many fantasies about what I will produce and how wonderfully it will be received, that I just get up and do the laundry instead of writing. Hey, I’m being productive so it is a fine substitute. These are illusions and lies I tell myself, which is another aspect of the VII of Cups. I’m kidding myself that chores are what I’m meant to be doing with my life, but it is a convenient lie. I’ve got a lot of clean clothes and dishes, but that doesn’t make me feel fulfilled by my life.

The search for meaning keeps coming up for me recently. I’m on a quest for a life philosophy, something that makes me feel like all this effort and doing and trying is worth it, like it’s all adding up to something. Perhaps the seven cups in the Rider Waite Smith image of this card above, could hold seven different paths towards meaning. Some of them may be truly fulfilling, while others may turn out to be empty promises. What can I do but keep trying them out and keep searching for a reason why I’m here, why any of us is here!

At the end of a long road towards making a difficult decision, I want to feel like my choices actually have impact and produce results that increase my happiness or make the world a better place. The VII of Cups points towards that search and also towards the continuation of uncertainty. Ultimately, we just can’t know where our decisions will take us until we make them. It’s time to just get on with it and choose! Then, if we chose poorly, at least we still have plenty of time to try something else!

No matter how much we would like to be certain about things before we proceed, the only certainty in life is that there is no certainty. Everything changes. We get things figured out and then circumstance change and we’ve got a whole new set of things to figure out. All that we build will fall apart. Each of us will die. Or we will no longer be here on Earth as we know it, the certainties of death basically end there.

Oh dear, we’ve gotten to death. This blog post is getting heavy? You’re reading the blog of a Scorpio rising with natal Sun in the 8th house ruled by Gemini. And right now the Sun is in Gemini, along with Mercury, Venus, and Jupiter. That’s a lot of communication energy in the house of death, mystery, and the occult. Maybe it’s best to steer clear of my blog indefinitely if you’re not willing to face uncertainty, the unknowable, or death. It’s just baked into my being! But definitely for the next couple of weeks till this Gemini focus shifts in the sky.

The author in her natural habit, pondering the meaning of life and how to write a good blog post.

Honestly, writing about myself on the internet feels a bit scary. I don’t remember if I was scared to share back in the day when I started this blog, or if something has changed about the internet and the world. I have a sense that the internet is more sinister and divided place than it once was. At least it is more cynical and capitalistic. But here I am, showing up, writing, doing what I want to do despite the fact that I’m scared and I don’t know what’s going to happen next.

This blog post ended up being a lot longer than I thought it should be, but oh well. How can one expect to write a short post AND get into the meaning of life? Also a reminder- I have a sale on email tarot readings right now. If you’d like a detailed reading like this all about yourself, grab a reading today!