Before we dive into the Suit of Cups within tarot, it’s important that we first understand the two, main parts of the deck. These two parts are what is known as the Major Arcana and the Minor Arcana. The Suit of Cups can be found as one of the four suits contained within the Minor Arcana.
The Suit of Wands, Suit of Pentacles, Suit of Swords, and Suit of Cups are what make up the Minor Arcana. As already mentioned in a previous post, the four suits within the Minor Arcana each represent an element. Obviously, these elements are air, water, fire, and earth.
Likewise, each one is symbolically linked to an integral part of every day, human experience. These are thoughts, feelings, actions, and materials. Today, however, we are focusing on the Suit of Cups.
Symbolism of the Suit of Cups
Representing the water element, the Suit of Cups regard our emotions. That means that each cup card indicates something involving our feelings. Some of these cards are positive, while others feel more negative.
If you take a look at the images of the cups cards, you may notice that inside of many of the cups is water or liquid. This is because water is symbolic of emotions and strong emotions sometimes involve tears, whether happy or sad. When a person is “deep,” they’re generally someone who is emotionally intelligent.
Conversely, some cups are knocked over in the cup cards, which could suggest other feelings. Perhaps this says anger, contempt, or that someone is moving on. Either way, these watery emotions contained in the cups have been spilled.
Suit of Cups and Water
The most interesting thing about water, in my opinion, is that it can take on nearly any form. It can turn to steam, boil, turn to gas, freeze, and melt again. This is much like our emotions and how they’re constantly changing. If we were to reach the deepest depths of the ocean, we would implode from the pressure, and this is similar to what we describe metaphorically when we’re “heavy” with emotion.
Water can both be dangerous and calming. It quenches our thirst and cleans our bodies. Although most of us love a day at the beach, riptides can quickly become life-threatening. Water can be as vengeful as a rushing a river and a soothing as a forest spring, much like our feelings.
Suit of Cups Interpretations
The Suit of Cups isn’t simply limited to emotions alone. They sometimes involve similar areas, such as our intuition, sensitivities, love interests, imagination, and dreams. Showing us where our feelings have perhaps led us down a road lacking in logic, the Suit of Cups may show us where we have been idealistic.
Like all the suits, the Suit of Cups has a total of fourteen cards within it. The first ten are numbered ace (one) through ten and the last four are Court Cards. Let’s take a look at their most basic meanings below.
The Suit of Cups Cards
- Ace of Cups — New feelings, new lover, new intuitive information, etc.
Two of Cups — When two people bond or commit to one another.
Three of Cups — Harmony among friends, your team, or other group.
Four of Cups — Withdrawal, organization, dissatisfaction, boredom, etc.
Five of Cups — Emotional strife, conflicts of the heart, hurt feelings or being let down, etc.
Six of Cups — Childlike innocence, compassion, sympathy, or helpfulness.
Seven of Cups — Having big imagination, dreaming, not being realistic, etc.
Eight of Cups — Betrayal, broken heart, misplaced trust, shocking blow to heart, etc.
Nine of Cups — Having made it through tough times with more love and joy than before.
Ten of Cups — Emotional fulfillment, love as an accomplishment, satisfaction, and appreciation.
Page of Cups — Someone young, highly imaginative, magical, innocent, and emotional, all pages are also known as “messenger cards”
Knight of Cups — Good-hearted, giving, acts of love and gratitude, acting upon dreams, a reminder to continue putting out good, and it will come back to you eventually, etc.
Queen of Cups — Emotionally mature and balanced, highly emotionally intelligent, extremely sensitive and intuitive, connected to feminine wisdom, serious depth, etc.
King of Cups — Someone who has mastered their emotions, emotionally balanced, embraces feelings without being swept away by them, has love for all, etc.
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