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When you pull a card from the suit of cups, one of four suits within the Minor Arcana, you can expect to touch on your emotions, feelings, relationships, and personal connections. 

The suit of cups are closely associated with the water element and astrological water signs, like Pisces, Cancer, and Scorpio. It can represent matters close to the heart, such as romantic relationships and close friends or family, while also representing your intuition, creativity, or your overall emotional state. Just like the element of water, your emotions are always flowing. They may be soft, gentle, and purifying, or powerful and raging like a strong ocean wave. 

Let’s take a closer look at the individual suit of cups tarot card meanings.

If you are interested in learning more about Tarot cards, explore my guide to The Major Arcana Tarot Card Meanings Explained

The Suit of Cups Meanings 

The suit of cups is strongly associated with feelings and emotions. When you think with your heart, you tend to react instead of thinking things through. That’s why this suit is also connected to intuition, which can lead to strong creative expression, romanticism, and fantasy. 

Those who connect with the suit of cups can either be empathetic and compassionate, or on the other hand, deeply consumed by their emotions. When you find strength in the suit of cups, you are in touch with your feelings and can express yourself openly and honestly. You may also find strength in your intuitive abilities, which can lead to significant creative expression. Alternatively, facts and logic may be completely disregarded when you become overwhelmed and disengaged with your emotional state. The weak side of the suit of cups may be an emotional block or conflict, a lack of creativity, an inability to express yourself, or to become lost within your own fantasies.

Ace of Cups 

The Ace of Cups is ultimately about potential. It can represent love, initiation of a new relationship, compassion, creativity, or overwhelming emotion. 

Two of Cups 

The Two of Cups represents an exploration phase. You must make the choice to pursue or not pursue, such as a new mutual attraction, unified love, partnership, lack of harmony, a breakup, or an imbalance within a relationship. 

Three of Cups

The Three of Cups is all about creative energy in building friendships, collaborations, creativity, community, and celebration.

Four of Cups

The Four of Cups is where you can start to establish a foundation on what you’re creating. Think meditation, contemplation, apathy, reevaluation, or introspection.

Five of Cups

The Five of Cups is where things can begin to shift, change, or transform. This card can represent a problem, catalyst, chaos, or a choice, such as a loss, regret, failure, disappointment, personal setbacks, or despair. 

Six of Cups

With the Six of Cups, you may find yourself reminiscing about reunions, nostalgia, childhood memories, good intentions, and simple joys and pleasures. This card is all about harmony and balance in resolving the past chaos or change. 

Seven of Cups

The Seven of Cups is a very spiritual card. With the Seven of Cups, you’re giving in to fantasies, imagination, wishful thinking, desires, and temptations. Here you can test things, explore, manifest, or tweak your process to ensure you’re still in alignment with your true vision. 

Eight of Cups

The Eight of Cups may represent an escape, withdrawal, abandonment, walking away, or surrender. This is where you can find mastery, persistence, or a bit of fine-tuning. 

Nine of Cups

The Nine of Cups is where you cross the finish line and arrive at your goal! It’s a sign of achievement, contentment, wishes fulfilled, celebration, finality, satisfaction, and gratitude.

Ten of Cups

The Ten of Cups represents fulfillment, harmony, happiness, alignment, divine love, serenity, peace, and emotional contentment.

Page of Cups

The Page of Cups is highly creative and touches on the playfulness in our lives. Pages represent student energy and learning. They love to serve and be in service of others. They can take an initial idea or inspiration and decide how best to pursue it. This card can represent a messenger, creative inspiration, ideas, opportunities, synchronicity, hopeless romantic, or curiosity.

Knight of Cups

The Knight of Cups is a romantic who wears their heart on their sleeve. When this card comes up, we can take action to enact a plan and follow it from a heart-based space. With the Knight of Cups, you can be open to new adventures. It represents intuition, idealism, charm, romance, adventure, beauty, and following your heart.

Queen of Cups

Queens are all about structure, organization, and delegation. Queen of cups is highly psychic so she approaches all information from an intuitive realm. The Queen of Cups represents the essence of creativity and artistic expression. It also stands for intuition, compassion, and emotional stability.

King of Cups

The King of Cups makes and enforces the rules. Here you’ll find wisdom, patience, emotional balance, compassion, and diplomacy. They are the Mastery, leadership, and protectors of the elements. Specifically, the King of Cups is the protector of the heart space and the realm of the psychic. Kings know what will be best for any situation because they are deeply connected to their intuitive voices and follow that inner guidance. This is an auspicious card in that it foretells empowered desired outcomes based on trust in the universe.