4 July 18: Seven of Clubs/Wands/Rods/Fire

Justify your position, sir/ma’am. 

Interesting. This rather tense card of the Minor Arcana is of the passionate Fire suit, Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius. Associated with perpetually pissed-off Mars, this is a touchy card of defending one’s position, or as it may seem, one’s very existence or raison d’être. 

There’s nothing mysterious about the traditional imagery of this card. A human stands on a high bluff or hilltop surrounded by 6 long, straight wooden wands planted into the ground around him. He grasps a 7th in both hands and holds it straight out in front of him in a blocking position as a martial artist would against unseen attackers presumably coming up the hill to claim his place. He is protected by his faith in himself.

How did he manage to secure that hill upon which he stands so proudly? So many have tried to take that hill and failed. Why does he deserve this position, this higher place to which we all aspire?

This is a card of maintaining your position. Success has been achieved. We celebrated our victorious accomplishments previously on the 6 of Wands, and so did everyone else. But the seven reminds us that there are a whole lot of people out for our jobs, and we have to constantly be ‘proving’ we deserve our position in life and have rightfully earned it.

The decorated hero leading the victory parade who rode into town to cheers and applause on the previous #6 had no idea those very same people would come after his job on the #7.

Someone told me of an old Mexican saying, “crabs in a bucket”. One tries to get out, the others try to drag him back down.

Ah, humans.