Seven of Cups
Minor Arcana · Cups · number 7 · Sette di Coppe
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The Seven of Cups is a cloud full of cups, and in each cup a vision: a castle, a treasure, a face, a snake. Fairy favours, images, sentiment, imagination, some small attainment in these degrees, but nothing solid or permanent, warns Waite. If these days you dream a lot, an ideal love, a perfect job, a windfall, and achieve little, it is no accident: you are looking into the glass of contemplation, not at reality. Beware of offers that are too good and of people who promise everything. It is not a sentence: imagination is a gift. The practical advice: choose one cup only, the most concrete, and take a real step towards it by tomorrow.
Source: Arthur Edward Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910) · read the original passage
Reversed
Reversed, the Seven of Cups comes down from the cloud: desire, will, determination, project. The visions narrow to one, and that one becomes a plan. If these days you feel a new clarity, you know what you want in love, which job to look for, where to put your money, it is no accident: the fog has lifted. Just be careful not to swing from indecision to stubbornness. It is not a sentence. The practical advice: write the project in three lines, with a date and a first step, and show it to someone who will ask you about your progress.