The suit of cups is the water suit, and it covers feeling, love, and whatever moves between two people. The cup on each card is a chalice, mostly full, occasionally spilled, and the suit is the one people turn to when the question has somebody else’s name in it, which is most of the questions asked after ten at night.
There are fourteen cups, ten with numbers and four with faces, and read in a row they follow a feeling from the first stirring to a full house. The suit can see your side of a feeling in some detail and nothing of the inside of anybody else, and a cups reading that forgets this stops being a reading and becomes a hope with a picture on it.
Water, feeling and what moves between people
Water takes the shape of whatever holds it, and feelings do the same, which is why the same love looks like gratitude on Sunday and like grievance by Wednesday. The suit of cups is interested in what the feeling actually is, under the politer name you have given it. The picture we keep coming back to is two mugs on a kitchen table, one of them untouched, because that is what most cups questions look like from the outside: something was offered, something was or was not taken up, and the person asking already knows more about the untouched mug than they would like to.
The suit of cups from ace to king
The Ace of Cups is a hand holding out an overflowing cup, the beginning of a feeling that has no name yet. The Two is a man and a woman exchanging cups, what is between two people today, and the Three is three women dancing with their cups raised, the friends who turn up. The Four is a young man under a tree with his arms crossed, ignoring a fourth cup held out to him, the Five is a cloaked figure looking down at three spilled cups with two still standing behind, and the Six is a child handing a cup of flowers to a smaller child, the past at its sweetest and least accurate.
The Seven is a figure staring at seven cups in a cloud, wanting everything and choosing nothing. The Eight is someone walking away from eight neatly stacked cups under a moon, the Nine is a man with his arms folded in front of nine cups on a shelf, content and a little smug, and the Ten is a couple with their arms raised under a rainbow of cups while two children dance, the full house.
The four people are water at four ages. The Page peers into a cup and finds a fish looking back, a feeling that arrives unannounced, and the Knight rides at a walk with his cup raised, feeling that arrives before timing does. The Queen sits by the sea holding a closed cup, the one who feels the whole room and knows her own mind, and the King sits on a throne on the water itself, feeling held steady enough to be leaned on.
The fourteen cards of the suit of cups
- Ace of Cups new love, open heart, emotional beginning
- Two of Cups mutual attraction, partnership, connection
- Three of Cups friendship, celebration, community
- Four of Cups apathy, discontent, withdrawal
- Five of Cups loss, regret, grief
- Six of Cups nostalgia, kindness, childhood
- Seven of Cups choices, imagination, fantasy
- Eight of Cups leaving, walking away, seeking meaning
- Nine of Cups contentment, satisfaction, wish fulfilled
- Ten of Cups belonging, family, lasting happiness
- Page of Cups new feeling, curiosity, creative spark
- Knight of Cups romance, invitation, following the heart
- Queen of Cups empathy, intuition, emotional depth
- King of Cups emotional maturity, calm, steady support
The cups people search most
The Two of Cups is searched more than any card in the suit, and it describes what is between you and that person as it stands, which is something you can see. It is not evidence of what they feel, because the cards can see your side of the exchange and no further. The Three of Cups gets looked up by people who wanted the Two, and it answers a different question, which is who would turn up for you on a Friday.
The Five of Cups is grief that is not finished, eyes on the three spilled cups and not on the two still standing, and it asks nothing of you yet except that you eventually turn around. The Eight of Cups is leaving something that was good and has stopped being enough, with the cups stacked neatly because nothing went wrong. The Ten of Cups is a picture of the life you want rather than a booking, so it does not tell you that you will marry or that a family is on the way; it tells you what full would look like to you.
Reversed cups
A reversed cup is water turned inward, held up, or draining out, and none of the three is a bad sign. The Ace reversed is a feeling you have not let yourself have yet, the Three reversed is the invitation declined again, the Ten reversed is a full house that wants looking after rather than a home in trouble, and the Queen reversed has been the shoulder for everyone else and has run out of cup for herself. The three ways we read a turned card are on the page about reversed tarot cards.
Tonight, the feeling under the question
Most cups readings go wrong before the first card is turned, at the point where a feeling gets called something politer than it is, so that missing him becomes wondering how he is and jealousy becomes concern. The suit of cups reads far better when you have said the plain word first. So tonight, before bed, say out loud the feeling you have been calling something else all week, write its short name on a sticky note, and put it where breakfast will find it, because a feeling with its real name is one you can do something about.
Questions people ask
What does the suit of cups represent in tarot?
Water, which in a life is feeling, love, friendship and everything that moves between two people. Cups cards turn up most when a question has another person’s name in it, and they read your side of the feeling in some detail. What they cannot do is read the other person, and a cups reading that claims otherwise has turned into a hope.
Does the Two of Cups mean someone is in love with me?
No card can tell you that, and we would sooner say so than pretend. The Two of Cups describes what is between you and that person as it stands, which you can see from your own chair: the exchange, the ease, the mug left untouched. It is a picture of the space between you, and the only way to learn what is in the other chair is to ask.
Does the Ten of Cups mean I will get married?
No. The Ten of Cups is a picture of the full house, a couple under a rainbow with two children dancing, and it shows what full would look like to you rather than booking a date for it. No card predicts a wedding, a baby or a proposal. What it can do is make you honest about what you want, which is worth knowing before you ask anyone for it.