Tarot card meanings · Cups
What does Eight of Cups mean in tarot?
In A. E. Waite's Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910), the Eight of Cups upright means “The card speaks for itself on the surface, but other readings are entirely antithetical—giving joy, mildness, timidity, honour, modesty. In practice, it is usually found that the card shews the decline of a matter”, and reversed “Great joy, happiness, feasting”.
Upright
The card speaks for itself on the surface, but other readings are entirely antithetical—giving joy, mildness, timidity, honour, modesty. In practice, it is usually found that the card shews the decline of a matter.Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, Part 3
Reversed
Great joy, happiness, feasting.Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, Part 3
What does the picture show?
A man of dejected aspect is deserting the cups of his felicity, enterprise, under-taking or previous concern.Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, Part 3
Where does the Eight of Cups fall in a reading?
Eight of Cups belongs to the suit of Cups. On this site you draw three cards, which take three of the places in the ten-card method Waite describes: “This covers him”, “This crosses him”, “This is before him”. The same card reads differently in each place, and the I Ching cast beside it may agree or disagree.
Ask one question. Draw three cards, and cast an I Ching hexagram beside them to see where East and West agree. Free.
Draw three cardsWaite's words are quoted as printed, and left out where they speak of money, law, illness or disaster. The pictures are the 1909 deck drawn by Pamela Colman Smith. For entertainment and self-reflection.