This Tarot Card Keeps Following Me Around

It’s not a coincidence

I started learning how to read Tarot cards during the first lockdown. It was always on my bucket list and seemed like the perfect time to learn a new skill.

Some people rolled their eyes. I’m sure anyone who reads the cards will have experienced the same thing, but I was determined to enjoy the process of learning.

I didn’t expect to encounter particular cards always appearing when I read for myself. One specific card shows up almost every time I read. Is it a coincidence?

Perhaps it is, but anyone who knows me and knows the card's meaning will be unsurprised at the recurrence.

It’s the Seven of Cups. If you look closely, you’ll see that there is a person standing in front of seven cups, gazing at them in wonder.

Each of the cups is filled with some different object representing possible scenarios in life. Some are good, and some are a little challenging, but the person standing before them is spoilt for choice.

That’s one of the themes of this card — choices and having many of them. That’s why I couldn’t understand why this card kept appearing. I didn’t seem to have many choices in life.

I’m still working on my degree, have no job, have limited chances to socialise and limited freedom to do what I want due to caring responsibilities.

I often feel like I’m spinning too many plates, and they will fall over if I don’t get them under control. I was sure that this card had no meaning for me. It even made me doubtful about continuing to read Tarot because it seemed so off-track.

I couldn’t get it out of my head, though. Choices, being spoilt for choice, having lots of options… It made no sense in my life.

It was only when I wrote down my goals for the new year that I realised something about myself. I suffer from shiny object syndrome, which isn’t a real disorder, but I think many readers will understand exactly what I mean.

Esther Vargas of the University of Central Florida’s Business Incubation Program describes it as “the tendency to pursue new ideas and projects on a whim.” I jump from one hobby to the next.

I want to do this job when I finish studying, then a week later, I’ll get bored with the idea and want to do that job. Then another one that sounds better. I bounce around like a pinball, never sticking with anything for too long and always changing my mind.

Now the card makes sense! The seven of cups isn’t just the card of choices, it’s the card of focus too. Pick a cup. Pick an idea. Be careful of which cup you choose because not all of them are filled with riches and roses.

If you took the cards literally, you’d see that some cups have snakes popping out of them, which I would say represents betrayal or bad advice.

Honestly, some days, I keep picking the cup with the snake in it! But I will certainly keep in mind that shiny object syndrome is something I should be conscious of, and I should try to stick to one cup and one idea.

I never looked at Tarot to predict the future like the eye-rollers think it is, but as a way to understand ourselves and gain insight into our personalities and circumstances. It won’t tell me which path to take, but it makes me more self-aware.

When this card kept repeating itself, I had to look inward and ask myself some really tough questions.

I didn’t always like the answers, but that usually means I’m asking the right questions. It took me a while to figure this card out, but I did, and that’s how I know I’m still learning — about Tarot and myself.