Water
The Suit of Cups
The suit of water: feeling, love, intuition and the life of the heart.
Cups are vessels, and what they hold is feeling. They are the suit of love and friendship, grief and longing, dreams and the imagination — everything that is felt before it is understood. Where a Cup falls, the heart has something to say about the matter, whether or not you have asked it.
In other decks: chalices or hearts.
The element of water
Water takes the shape of whatever holds it, and finds its way into every gap. It reflects, it runs deep, it dissolves. In a reading, water speaks of receptivity — of what you take in and what moves you — and of the undertow beneath the surface. It is the element of the dream, which is to say the element this deck is named for.
In astrology, water is the element of Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces, and nine of these cards are the ten-day slices of those three signs. How the cards and the zodiac are paired.
Ace to Ten
The Ace is the heart overflowing. Two is the bond of equals, Three the friends who dance. Four is the cup offered and unnoticed; Five the grief over what was spilt, and the two still standing behind you. Six is memory, Seven the cloud of too many wishes. Eight walks away from the good in search of the true. Nine is the wish granted, and Ten is the rainbow over the whole household. The suit is a heart's education.
The court
The court of Cups are people of feeling. The Page brings a gentle surprise or a creative message; the Knight is the romantic, charming and slow to arrive; the Queen feels deeply and holds steady at the water's edge; the King keeps the sea in check with kindness and diplomacy.
Cups in a spread
A spread full of Cups is about relationships and emotional life — love, family, friendship, or what you feel about the matter rather than what you think.
A spread with no Cups may be a question the heart has been left out of. It is worth asking how you feel, even if the cards are talking about something else.
The fourteen Cups
- Ace of Cupsnew love, compassion, the heart opening
AAce of Cups - Two of Cupspartnership, mutual attraction, a bond of equals
IITwo of Cups - Three of Cupsfriendship, community, celebration shared
IIIThree of Cups - Four of Cupsapathy, contemplation, boredom with the good on offer
IVFour of Cups - Five of Cupsgrief, regret, loss
VFive of Cups - Six of Cupsnostalgia, innocence, a gift from the past
VISix of Cups - Seven of Cupsfantasy, choice overload, illusion
VIISeven of Cups - Eight of Cupsdeparture, seeking deeper meaning, leaving the good for the true
VIIIEight of Cups - Nine of Cupscontentment, satisfaction, gratitude
IXNine of Cups - Ten of Cupsharmony, family, emotional fulfilment
XTen of Cups - Page of Cupscreative message, intuition, gentle surprise
PPage of Cups - Knight of Cupscharm, an offer, following the heart
KnKnight of Cups - Queen of Cupscompassion, deep feeling, emotional security
QQueen of Cups - King of Cupsemotional balance, diplomacy, mature kindness
KKing of Cups
The other suits
- The Suit of Wands — The suit of fire: will, desire, the spark that starts things and the drive that carries them through.
- The Suit of Swords — The suit of air: the mind, truth, conflict, and the words that cut both ways.
- The Suit of Disks — The suit of earth: the body, work, money, home, and everything that takes time to grow.
- The major arcana — the twenty-two cards outside the suits, and the one beyond them.