The suit of Cups

Cups are the suit of the heart. They speak to feeling, love, friendship, imagination and the emotional weather of a situation. Their element is water. When Cups fill a reading, the question is usually about how you feel and how you connect.

The climate of Cups

Cups are about emotions, relationships, intuition and creativity. Their gift is connection and empathy. Their risk is overwhelm, daydreaming and getting lost in feeling. A helpful rule for this suit: feelings are information, not instructions. Use what the cards name, then decide with ordinary judgment what to do next.

The fourteen cards

• Ace of Cups (new emotions, relationships, love). A hand from a cloud holds an overflowing cup as a dove descends. A heart opening.
• Two of Cups (unity, partnership, mutual attraction). Two people exchange cups under a winged lion’s head. Mutual regard.
• Three of Cups (celebration, friendship, creativity). Three women raise their cups in a dance. Friends and shared joy.
• Four of Cups (contemplation, apathy, reevaluation). A man under a tree ignores a cup offered from a cloud. Flat mood, missed gifts.
• Five of Cups (regret, loss, sorrow). A cloaked figure mourns three spilled cups while two still stand behind. Grief, and what remains.
• Six of Cups (nostalgia, memories, reunion). Two children share a cup of flowers. Old memories and simple kindness.
• Seven of Cups (fantasy, illusion, choices). Seven cups float in a cloud, each holding a vision. Too many dreams to choose from.
• Eight of Cups (walking away, letting go, seeking meaning). A figure walks away from eight stacked cups under the moon. Leaving what no longer fills you.
• Nine of Cups (satisfaction, contentment, emotional fulfillment). A content man sits with nine cups arranged behind him. A wish fulfilled.
• Ten of Cups (harmony, joy, shared belonging). A family stands under a rainbow of cups. Shared happiness.
• Page of Cups (intuition, creativity, emotional openness). A young person looks at a fish rising from a cup. A sweet surprise or creative idea.
• Knight of Cups (romance, charm, idealism). A knight rides slowly, holding out a cup. An offer of the heart.
• Queen of Cups (compassion, intuition, emotional security). A queen gazes at an ornate closed cup by the sea. Deep, steady care.
• King of Cups (emotional balance, diplomacy, wisdom). A king sits calmly on a throne floating on rough water. Calm in emotional storms.

Reading the suit as a story

In order, the Cups tell the story of an emotional life. A heart opens (Ace) and meets another (Two), and friends celebrate (Three). Then comes a flat spell (Four), a loss (Five) and comfort in memories (Six). Dreams multiply (Seven) until you walk away to look for something deeper (Eight). You find personal contentment (Nine) and finally shared belonging (Ten).

Cups in your life

In love, Cups are the most direct suit: attraction, partnership, sometimes heartbreak. In work, they point to how you feel about your job, creative work and teamwork. In spirituality, they speak of intuition, dreams and devotion. When a reading has many Cups, ask: what am I feeling, and what do I need?

Remember that the pictures above describe the 1909 Rider-Waite-Smith scenes. If your deck redraws them, look for the same idea in your own cards. Every card in the suit has its own full page: start from the suit of Cups. The keywords here are enough to start reading.

Try this

Today’s exercise: Draw one Cups card and write about a feeling it brings up, without judging the feeling. Keep it short. Two or three lines in your notebook are enough, and there are no wrong answers. If you like, come back to the page tomorrow and add one more line about anything you noticed in the meantime. Small, regular notes like these are how the cards slowly become familiar.

Quick recap

• Cups are water: feelings, love and imagination.
• Feelings are information, not instructions.
• The Ace to Ten reads like the story of an emotional life.
• Many Cups ask what you feel and what you need.

Keep going

When you have done the exercise, press “Mark as done” and continue with the next lesson, Swords. There is no hurry. If a lesson needs a second day, give it one.

To go deeper, read the Cups chapter in my book The Novice’s Guide to Tarot.

Need a refresher? Go back to Wands or see the whole course.

Go deeper: The Novice's Guide to Tarot: Cups

Mark as done