Seven of Chalices
Chalices
How This Card Is Derived
Papus gives no separate description of this card. It is derived from his system: Chalices is He (ה), the passive, receptive principle, acting in Briah, the creative world; the number 7 is He final of the second series, and Yod of the third, a second realization, which itself sets the last movement going. The meaning below is that combination read out — the passive, receptive principle taken at its 7th term — not a quotation from him.
Upright
The second pivot, and in the receptive world a realization takes the form of possibilities becoming visible all at once. Seven cups, seven contents, none of them chosen. Papus's seventh term realizes and destabilises in the same motion: this is imagination made concrete enough to choose among, which is a real achievement, and is not the same thing as choosing.
Reversed
The choice made, cutting six possibilities dead — which reversed renders as relief or as loss depending entirely on the cards around it. Or the display kept up indefinitely, because as long as nothing is chosen nothing can be wrong.
Correspondences
- Suit
- Chalices — He (ה), Briah, the creative world
- Suit principle
- the passive, receptive principle
- Number
- 7 — He final of the second series, and Yod of the third
- Numeric role
- a second realization, which itself sets the last movement going
In a Spread
At the commencement, the matter begins with several live options. In opposition, an abundance of choice functioning as paralysis. At equilibrium the situation holds because nothing has been committed to. As the result: options — and a seventh term hands on, so this is not where the reading stops.