Das Lied der Rohrigen - 7 of Disks

This is my card of the day today, so here are my thoughts about it:

A man sits alone in the distance, on a solitary rock. His head is down, he is sad. So sad that he doesn't see the 7 disks above his head in the sky. He feels at a loss as to what to do.

There are also black clouds above his head, it doesn't get much worse than this ...... The large disks are eclipsing a bright light - I think its the Moon . The light is what he needs, to see a way out and be happy, but he is lost in himself so much that he doesn't notice it.

Its a sad card, I wonder what it will refer to for my day? So far, my day is good - who is this sad man?

I've been reading "Tarot Tells the Tale", by James Ricklef. He compares the 5's and 7's by likening the 5's to doing homework and the 7's to final exams. Failure is one of the Universe's final exams. Especially when you fail spectacularly. You did everything you were "supposed" to do to give you the storybook ending; you worked hard, built up your self-esteem and gathered your courage to ask for a raise. You were turned down. You opened your heart to love, romanced a wonderful woman, shared secrets with her that no one else knew, worked up your nerve and asked her to marry you. You haven't heard from her since. You avoid movies and flinch at the sound of pop songs because they all make you feel that the Universe has singled you out; you made all the "right" moves and failed anyway. It's not the way it's "supposed" to happen. The test of failure is- do you trust the Universe anyway? You didn't hit the jackpot in Vegas, you didn't grab the ring on the Merry-go-round; does that mean there is nothing greater than yourself that cares for you? Who are you? (Who is this sad man, indeed What is your intrinsic value divorced from any material consideration? Are you really diminished by your failure, less of a person, less worthy of love? What is the criterion of human worth- can it really be measured in any material way? The apostle Paul said there are in the end only three things that last: faith, hope and love, and the greatest of these is love. The final exam is to look beyond the world's promises- the floating balls hovering just out of reach and obscuring the light. Failure on the world's terms is painful but we needn't let it define us.

I have a different impression of this 7 of Disks.

I see a man who is sitting taking stock of what he has set in motion. Wondering deeply, even, if he should take a risk. His hesitation is mirrored by the dark underbelly of the clouds, but the glimpse of light (I would venture the sun) about to appear from behind a disk, together with the lighter part of the surface of the clouds, lead me to believe that all that is required is patience and the conviction of our capacity to break through our negative beliefs.

The light portends a breakthrough of some kind, especially, bcause we are dealing with the disks, a financial epiphany of sorts.

I think, in other words, that whatever failure is perceived is a) imagined, and b) stems from the lack of self-confidence that the man (read we) must overcome in order to flourish.

That is a really interesting take, Namaste. It seems to blend the RWS interpretation with the Thoth keyword of Failure in that the man has finished the mentally and physically absorbing task of generating something, and is now in that twilight stage of waiting for it to fully manifest. Suddenly, with nothing to do but wait, he can become terribly unsure, his nerve could fail, his will to persevere ebb. He can realize his own worst fears by giving up too soon, or he can have that epiphany and break, as you say, through his negative beliefs and remain confident that the promised harvest will come to fruition. Very cool