1. Tarot
2. Card meanings
3. Ace of Cups

Minor Arcana · Cups

Ace of Cups

• joy
• content
• nourishment
• abundance

Upright meaning

An overflowing cup: joy, content and nourishment. Waite calls it the house of the true heart.

Reversed meaning

Reversed, Waite reads mutation and instability. A prompt to look after your own feelings as well as others'.

• mutation
• instability

Symbolism

A hand from a cloud holds a cup from which four streams pour; a dove descends over water-lilies.

Group

Minor Arcana · Cups

Element, astrology

Not given by Waite, so we give none

Source

Our own plain-English summary of A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (London: Rider, 1911), Part III §2 (The Lesser Arcana). The keywords are Waite’s own words. Waite’s fortune-telling lists also contain harsher terms; we keep to the reflective readings he gives and never state an event as certain.

Tarot is a tool for reflection, not a prediction of fixed outcomes. This is not medical, legal or financial advice.