Suit of Cups: Tarot Card Meanings

The Suit of Cups is representative of the element of water. The Suit of Cups Tarot card meanings deal with the emotional level of consciousness and are associated with love, feelings, relationships and connections. Cups are about displays of emotion, expression of feelings and the role of emotions in relation to others. The Cups Tarot cards indicate that you are thinking with your heart rather than your head, and thus reflect your spontaneous responses and your habitual reactions to situations. Cups are also linked to creativity, romanticism, fantasy and imagination.

The negative aspects of the Suit of Cups (i.e. when the Cups cards appear reversed) include being overly emotional or completely disengaged and dispassionate, having unrealistic expectations and fantasising about what could be. There may be repressed emotions, an inability to truly express oneself and a lack of creativity.

The Suit of Cups traditionally represents the west and autumn. If using an ordinary deck of playing cards, Cups are represented by the Suit of Hearts.

Suit of Cups Personality Characteristics

The people represented by the Suit of Cups (i.e. typically the Court Cards) are emotional, artistic, humane and creative. They are connected with their emotional selves and will draw energy from what they feel within. They are said to correspond to the water signs in the zodiac (Pisces, Cancer, Scorpio) and to water as a symbol of the subconscious mind and reason.

Cups Cards in a Tarot Reading

Should a Tarot reading be predominantly Cups cards, then you can be sure that the client is seeking solutions to what are primarily emotional conflicts, love matters and emotions.

Suit of Cups – Tarot Card Meanings

Click on each Tarot card below to find out more about its Tarot card meaning, including the upright and reversed Tarot card meanings.

Tarot Card	Keywords	Tarot Card	Keywords
Ace of Cups	Upright:Love, compassion, creativity, overwhelming emotion Reversed: Blocked or repressed emotions	Two of Cups	Upright:Unified love, partnership, attraction, relationships Reversed: Break-up, imbalance in a relationship, lack of harmony
Three of Cups	Upright:Celebration, friendship, creativity, community Reversed: An affair, “three’s a crowd”, stifled creativity	Four of Cups	Upright:Meditation, contemplation, apathy, re-evaluation Reversed: Boredom, missed opportunity, being aloof
Five of Cups	Upright:Loss, regret, disappointment, despair, bereavement Reversed: Moving on, acceptance, forgiveness	Six of Cups	Upright:Reunion, nostalgia, childhood memories, innocence Reversed: Stuck in the past, naivety, unrealistic
Seven of Cups	Upright:Fantasy, illusion, wishful thinking, choices, imagination Reversed: Temptation, illusion, diversionary tactics	Eight of Cups	Upright:Escapism, disappointment, abandonment, withdrawal Reversed: Hopelessness, aimless drifting, walking away
Nine of Cups	Upright:Wishes fulfilled, comfort, happiness, satisfaction Reversed: Greed, dissatisfaction, materialism	Ten of Cups	Upright:Harmony, marriage, happiness, alignment Reversed: Misalignment of values, broken home or marriage
Page of Cups	Upright:A messenger, creative beginnings, synchronicity Reversed: Emotional immaturity, creative block	Knight of Cups	Upright:Romance, charm, ‘Knight in shining armour’, imagination Reversed: Unrealistic, jealousy, moodiness
Queen of Cups	Upright:Emotional security, calm, intuitive, compassionate Reversed: Emotional insecurity, co-dependency	King of Cups	Upright:Emotional balance and control, generosity Reversed: Emotional manipulation, moodiness, volatility

Learn more about the Suit of Cups Tarot card meanings, including what each card means in a career, work, finance, relationship, spiritual or health reading, in my latest Tarot Guide The Ultimate Guide to Tarot Card Meanings. This comprehensive 330+ page Guide has everything you need to know about the Tarot card meanings and much more.