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Seven of Cups

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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, with a dragonfly alight on its nose. There is a little-known training among the nethik, kept hidden and separate from the official training of the Grehti priesthood. Deep in the woods, or in some remote and windswept field, or out in the rocky barrens, a person is faced with visions drawn from forgotten corners of their mind. They can be brilliant imaginings or twisted nightmares, but in the moment of confrontation, they are real. The nethik training forces a person to ask themselves what they really want, and what will be the lasting repercussions of getting it.

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. They would be replaced by that person's own desires and imaginings.

The traditional Seven of Cups takes 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. 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 I would rather see pleasure as inspiration. There's a natural ebb and flow over time as new possibilities open up and older ones fall out of reach.
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