What do you do when you can have anything that you want?
Well, if you’re a greedy mthr*kr, you take it all. You consume it, use it, obliterate it, r*pe it, devour it…you go absolutely bonkers – because you want to, and because you can. And from around November 10 to the 20th, we are beholden to this enigmatic force.
Upbeat intro? Welcome to the third decan of Scorpio.
Venus in Detriment
The Picatrix, Astrolabium Planum, Three Books of Occult Philosophy and Agrippa all describe this card as “fornication, sex with unwilling women, drunkenness, wrath, strife and violence”.
We can see how Venus isn’t exactly respected in this decan. Although she rules it, in Scorpio she is befallen due to Mars’ lordship over the sign.
Mars is everything Venus isn’t. What Venus brings together, Mars severs. When Venus depicts beauty, Mars states what is ugly. Venus is love, music and play, while Mars is quarrel, violence and bloodshed.
But we need to understand, without the polarity, there is no attraction. Venus needs Mars to give birth to children. Venus needs Mars to feel alive and enlightened. Venus and Mars may be opposites, but they too are lovers. And it is that dynamic, that causes the volcanic eruptions similar to orgasms.
However…
Debauchery
As I stated, Venus isn’t exactly exalted in this decan. But she still is Venus. Venus is all about pleasure, play, indulgence and desire. It doesn’t matter if we covet the latest gadget, the promotion, the love interest…desire is desire. And in the 7 of Cups, it gets what it wants.
Sort of.
In this rendition of the 7 of Cups, we see the name of the decan “Debauch” on display. There is an eerie discomfort when looking at this card, almost as if to say “all that glitters is not gold”. It reminds me of the Ghibli film Spirited Away, when the parents’ gluttony turned them into pigs.
THIS is what the 7 of Cups actually is.
It’s when you consume the bowels of capitalism, materialism, consumerism, addiction, lust, escapism, and the desire for more, more and more!
And you know what happens when you have all the mores in the world?
7 of Cups
Let’s go back to Rider Waite-Smith. For tarot readers, the most basic association to this card is the word: CHOICE.
Here, we see a silhouette of a man in obvious confusion about which cup he shall partake in/of. And if we take a look…what exactly are his choices? A ghostly figure? A tower of gloom? A poisonous snake?
Sure sure, we have some jewels and a wreath of success…but taking a closer look at the cup holding the wreath, we see a skull. So by choosing secured ambition, are we making a deal with the devil? Is this the price of success?
Ok, so now what?
The Shattering of Illusion
I have mentioned in my previous blog that…
In 5, we sought and we lost.
In 6, we connect and we remember.
in 7, we choose and we awaken.
The 7 of Cups/Third Decan of Scorpio is all about the choices that we make in life. As humans, we crave things, and there isn’t inherently anything wrong with that. But when we covet, lust, grovel, steal, hurt (you get my point) – then that’s when things go awry. That’s when we lose ourselves, and the illusion of what we want shatters before our very eyes.
However, not everything is lost. It is when we see the truth behind the glamour, that we can finally set ourselves free. We can make better decisions. We can want better things.
This card is a reminder of how far we will go to get what we want. But it’s also the key to true enlightenment.
ciao,
brit
more on the decans:
- T. Susan Chang -> https://www.tsusanchang.com
- Austin Coppock’s “36 Faces”
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