The Sevens: “Fearing a Misstep”
AUTHOR’S NOTE: This morning I came across a fragment of text by Benebell Wen from a longer translation of one line from the I Ching hexagram Lu, “ Heaven over Lake” (Hexagram 10) that dovetails neatly with my previous observations about the Sevens of the tarot Minor Arcana. The gist of it is that the seeker is perilously close to “treading on the tiger’s tail” and must exercise extreme caution to avoid a misstep that, at least from my Western perspective, is all-too-likely to occur since the “tiger” is almost underfoot.
In her book, Tarot Decoded, Elizabeth Hazel describes the number Seven as indicating “a step in a new direction” (away from the “safe harbor” of the Sixes), which almost invariably brings with it some kind of risky “test.” Careful planning is required before planting that lead foot so a false step and perilous lurch or stumble don’t ensue as a result of rashness as one hastens to leave complacency behind. Of all the decks I use for divination, the Waite-Smith tarot has Sevens that align most closely with this premise. Not one of these figures seems to be on top of the situation, and all appear vulnerable to “an accident waiting to happen.”
The man in the 7 of Wands looks like he already has a “tiger by the tail” (although some people think he is just building a rather porous palisade). He’s holding the high ground for the moment, but he can’t afford to step too close to the edge or he will be knocked off his feet. It’s interesting that Etteilla considered the next card in the series, the 8 of Wands, to depict an all-out battle, while to me the 7 of Wands more closely resembles a skirmish. Since he has the advantage of elevation, the harried combatant still has an opportunity to escape his foes if he makes a strong defensive showing, perhaps some kind of a “rear-guard” maneuver as he flees.
The “test” of the man in the 7 of Cups involves fending off befuddlement. There are temptations here that will lead him astray if he doesn’t mind his footing and stay on the “straight-and-narrow.” This is one of the more dangerous “pip” cards from the standpoint of making a tactical error because it is fraught with illusion that can be difficult to assess beforehand. Succumbing to the “glamor” of it all could be his undoing, and “one false step” could be all it takes. On the other hand, I once had a client who was interested in the career field of virtual-reality programing, and this card urged him to “go for it.”
The man in the 7 of Swords isn’t concerned about where he’s setting foot. He’s more absorbed in watching his “back trail” for pursuers than about any pitfalls in front of him. But his left-facing posture suggests that the path he’s on is one of retreat from the future; he is being drawn inexorably into past entanglements and may wind up stuck there, only able to look longingly toward where he originally intended to go. If he’s not careful, his burden will pin him to the ground; maybe the unfortunate soul in the 10 of Swords is this same sneak after he’s fumbled his weapons, effectively “stabbing himself in the back.” How about an extravagant Cecil B. DeMille production of “falling on your sword(s)?” Or perhaps the ludicrously over-the-top “death scene” of the sword-pierced Cheech Marin in the film Yellowbeard, right after he exhorted the extras “ No bad acting!”
Speaking of being stranded, the immobile man in the 7 of Pentacles appears to be rooted in his tracks, stuck in neutral after he has barely begun the task at hand. He has only harvested one “ripe fruit” while the others are still on the vine, and inertia has now claimed him prematurely. His “misstep” would seem to be declining to move at all, and his “test” is one of staying awake; he reminds me of “Prince Valium” from the Mel Brooks movie Spaceballs. Waite skirts the Golden Dawn premise of “Success Unfulfilled” (in other words, partial success that remains incomplete), but Crowley minced no words in calling it “Failure.” The RWS image implies “failure to follow through,” and my feeling is that the “crop” will rot before the farmer gets around to collecting it. In the final analysis, “spotty success” is still failure in my book.
Much has been said about the number Seven being associated with Venus and its focus on beauty and harmony, and even that it is a “spiritual” number with religious overtones; but in pragmatic terms (that is, at the level of the Minor Arcana) that doesn’t seem to be borne out. Crowley considered Seven to be significantly unbalanced along with its counterpart, the Eight, and I once wrote an essay that compared navigating between the two as “learning to ride a bicycle,” throwing one’s weight first one way and then the other, seeking equilibrium. Hopefully, any harmful miscue in either direction would manifest only in skinned knees and elbows, not in running headlong into an oncoming bus.
Originally published at http://parsifalswheeldivination.wordpress.com on May 9, 2024.
