Six of Cups tarot card meaning: upright, reversed and symbols

The Six of Cups shows two children in an old courtyard. The older one hands the younger one a cup filled with white flowers, and more cups of flowers stand around them. It is a card of memories, nostalgia, kindness and reunion. Here is what the Six of Cups means upright and reversed, the symbols Pamela Colman Smith drew and how to read it in love and work.

At a glance

• Upright keywords: nostalgia, memories, reunion
• Reversed keywords: stuck in the past, unrealistic expectations, rose-tinted memory
• Number: 6 in the suit of Cups
• Suit and element: Cups, Water Later tradition
• Astrology: Sun in Scorpio Later tradition
• Yes or no: Yes Modern

The element and the planet in a sign (one of the 36 ten-degree slices of the zodiac called decans) come from the Golden Dawn system of the 1880s and 1890s, not from the first tarot decks. The yes or no lean is a modern reading habit. Use these layers if they help you remember the card, and skip them if they get in the way.

The card: what Pamela Colman Smith drew

Waite’s description is short: “Children in an old garden, their cups filled with flowers.” Smith put the scene in a courtyard with old buildings, and a guard walking away in the background. Everything looks safe and slightly out of time.

The gift of flowers

The boy offers a cup of flowers. Nothing is asked in return. This is simple kindness, the kind we often remember from childhood.

The old courtyard

The buildings look old and settled, like a village from a fairy tale. The past is the setting of this card, whether that is childhood, an old home or an old friendship.

The walking guard

In the background an adult walks away. The children are protected but left to their own play. Safety and freedom sit together in the memory.

Upright meaning

Upright, the Six of Cups turns toward memory, childhood themes, old friends and the sweetness of a simpler kindness. It can describe a reunion, a gift given freely or the comfort of revisiting a place that once felt safe. Nostalgia here is not automatically false. Some memories hold real strength.

Let the past give you something useful: a forgotten joy, an old friend’s number, a way of playing you could bring back. Kindness without a price tag is also part of this card, so give some.

Reversed meaning

Reversed, the Six of Cups can show being stuck in the past, unrealistic expectations or rose-tinted memories. You may compare everything now with a golden age that was never quite that golden.

Honor the past without living in it. Ask what you are really missing, and whether you can create a version of it today. If old wounds come up, they may deserve gentle attention rather than another sweet story.

Reversals are optional. Many readers never use them and read every card upright, and that is a complete way to read. If you do use them, decide before you shuffle what a reversed card will mean for you, and keep to that choice for the whole reading.

In love, work and spirituality

Love

Upright, an old flame, a childhood sweetheart or tender, innocent affection. Reversed, comparing a partner with someone from the past.

Work and money

Returning to an old employer, working with children or a project that draws on your history. Reversed, refusing to adapt to how things are now.

Spirituality

Reconnecting with the magic you felt as a child, or ancestor work. Reversed, longing for a spiritual past instead of practicing now.

As feelings

As someone’s feelings, the Six of Cups shows tenderness, warmth and nostalgia. They may think of shared memories or feel safe with you.

The Six of Cups as past, present, future and advice

• Past: Childhood or an old relationship shaped what you feel now.
• Present: Memories are close. Let them teach you something kind.
• Future: A reunion or an old friend may come back.
• Advice: Give a simple gift without expecting anything.

A Minor Arcana card usually describes the everyday texture of a situation: a mood, a conversation, a task or a step. If the Six of Cups appears next to a Major Arcana card, let the Major name the big theme and let this card show how it is playing out in feeling and the other things Cups rule. If it keeps coming back over several days, write down what was happening each time.

Is the Six of Cups a yes or a no?

In modern yes or no readings, the Six of Cups leans yes. Warm memories point to yes. Tarot is better at showing the shape of a situation than at handing down verdicts, so if the question really matters, turn it into an open question such as “What do I need to know about this?” and draw again.

Affirmation and journal prompts

Affirmation: I keep what is kind from the past and live in the present.

Reversed affirmation: I release idealized memories that keep me from today.

Journal prompts:

• What did I love doing as a child that I could do again?
• Which memory gives me strength?
• Am I missing the past, or something I could create now?

What the Six means in tarot

Six is repair, reciprocity and movement back toward balance. After the trouble of the Five, the Sixes bring help, recognition, gifts or a journey to calmer ground.

Here is how the Six looks across the four suits:

• Six of Wands: success, recognition, victory
• Six of Cups (this card): nostalgia, memories, reunion
• Six of Swords: transition, moving on, healing
• Six of Pentacles: generosity, charity, balance

Learning a rank across the suits is one of the fastest ways to learn the Minor Arcana: the number or court rank gives you the shape, and the suit gives you the setting.

The history and art behind the card

In most decks before 1909, the number cards showed only a pattern of suit symbols, the way a playing card does. The Sola Busca deck from late 1400s Italy is the famous exception. Pamela Colman Smith gave every Minor Arcana card a scene with people in it, and that choice is a big reason the Rider-Waite-Smith deck is still the easiest deck for beginners. In Italian decks the suit is Coppe and in the Tarot de Marseille it is Coupes, goblets. Card players often match Cups with hearts in an ordinary deck, which is a good clue to what the suit is about. Smith gave the cups faces, rivers, rainbows and dreams. The water in so many of her Cups scenes is the easiest clue to the suit’s element.

When A. E. Waite published The Pictorial Key to the Tarot in 1910, he listed these divinatory meanings for the Six of Cups: “A card of the past and of memories, looking back, as, for example, on childhood; happiness, enjoyment, but coming rather from the past; things that have vanished.” Reversed, he gave: “The future, renewal, that which will come to pass presently.” Waite said he was offering “a harmony of their meanings” gathered “from all sources”, which means older fortune-telling lists, not his own reading of the picture. On this site I read the picture first and treat lists like this as history.

A spread for the Six of Cups

Use this spread when old memories are coming up.

1. What memory is calling? The past experience that wants attention.
2. What gift does it hold? The strength or joy it offers.
3. How can I bring it into today? One way to use that gift now.

Lay the three cards in a row, read each one on its own first, then read them together as a short story. Write one sentence for each position and one small action you will take.

Common questions

Is the Six of Cups a yes or no card?

It leans yes. It is gentle and kind.

Does the Six of Cups mean an ex is coming back?

It can point to someone from the past returning, but it can also mean simply thinking about the past. Read the cards around it.

What does the Six of Cups mean in love?

Tender, sweet affection, often linked to the past. Reversed, being stuck on an old relationship.

Related cards

• Five of Cups: the grief that comes before this gentler card
• The Sun: the Major Arcana card with a happy child
• Page of Cups: another young, soft-hearted figure of the water suit

Keep learning

The Six of Cups is part of the lesson Cups in my free Tarot for Beginners course. To see the whole suit on one page, go to the suit of Cups. To keep walking the suit, read the card before it, Five of Cups or the card after it, Seven of Cups, or go back to all the card meanings. For the suits and numbers in one place, see The Minor Arcana: suits and numbers made simple. For every card with keywords, affirmations and examples, see my book The Novice’s Guide to Tarot. If you would like a printable cheat sheet for all 78 cards, my 45-page Tarot Workbook is on Etsy.

Sources

• A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (London: Rider, 1910), Part III, sections 1 and 2.
• Pamela Colman Smith and A. E. Waite, the Rider-Waite-Smith tarot (London: Rider, 1909).
• Nicolas Conver, Tarot de Marseille (Marseille, 1760).
• Lauri Mukkala, The Novice’s Guide to Tarot, entry for the Six of Cups.