Tarot: Seven of Cups

[pyraxis]

Photoshop and MotionComputing Tablet

I had to cheat a little bit on this one, because those are Earth symbols, not Karnese ones. I didn't want there to be too much of a cultural barrier to identifying with the imagery.

The silhouette in the background is a nethik, one of the four Karnese shapes that the Grehti priests recognize, with a dragonfly alight on its nose. The nethik people live in nomadic and farming tribes ranging across the plains and woodland. In the southern badlands they are sometimes taken as slaves by the rsakk. Both they and the free nethik tend to be gentle, secretive, and fey - though they have their terrifying moments.

There is a little-known practice among the nethik, kept hidden from the official priesthood and separate from their traditions. What I can say about it is that it happens deep in the woods, or in some remote and windswept field, or out in the rocky barrens. With the aid of the teachers, it brings a person face to face with visions drawn from forgotten corners of their own mind. In the moment of confrontation, they are made real, with all the natural repercussions that may have.

The Seven of Cups is about what dreams may come.

In the Rider-Waite Seven of Cups, there are a traditional set of seven dreams, and each one is an unrealized potential which might lead the querent (the person getting the tarot reading) from their current position. There is a castle, a pile of jewels, a laurel wreath, a woman's face, a ghost, a snake, and a dragon. Each one has a classic meaning, like material gain, lust, or victory. The meanings in the Karnese Seven of Cups aren't meant to be direct parallels, but they are meant to be accessible to a person in the present day. Still, it would be better to imagine symbols of that person's own desires and imaginings rising from the surface of the water.

From the reading I did, the traditional Seven of Cups seems to have taken on the negative connotations of the Western Christian paradigm. If it appears in the past position in a reading, it's meant to imply that the querent is currently unsatisfied with life because hollow desires have led them astray. In the present position it implies that the temptations are distractions that should be avoided with wisdom and discipline. Only in the future position is it less menacing, because the temptations are distant dreams which actually may inspire the querent to stay their course and focus on the practical aspects of achieving their goals.

I don't like the idea that temptations and goals are mutually exclusive. It may be possible to strive for a thing with monk-like focus, to the exclusion of all pleasures, but pleasures are too rich a source of inspiration and rejuvenation to ignore.