Tarot card meanings · Cups
What does Four of Cups mean in tarot?
In A. E. Waite's Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910), the Four of Cups upright means “Weariness, disgust, aversion, imaginary vexations, as if the wine of this world had caused satiety only; another wine, as if a fairy gift, is now offered the wastrel, but he sees no consolation therein. This is also a card of blended pleasure”, and reversed “Novelty, presage, new instruction, new relations”.
Upright
Weariness, disgust, aversion, imaginary vexations, as if the wine of this world had caused satiety only; another wine, as if a fairy gift, is now offered the wastrel, but he sees no consolation therein. This is also a card of blended pleasure.Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, Part 3
Reversed
Novelty, presage, new instruction, new relations.Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, Part 3
What does the picture show?
A young man is seated under a tree and contemplates three cups set on the grass before him; an arm issuing from a cloud offers him another cup. His expression notwithstanding is one of discontent with his environment.Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, Part 3
Where does the Four of Cups fall in a reading?
Four 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.