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Suit of Cups: All 14 Cards Explained
The Suit of Cups is tarot's suit of emotion: love, friendship, intuition, and everything that happens in the heart. Traditionally linked to the element of water, Cups cards show up when the question is about relationships, feelings, or what would make you content.
Ace through Ten
The numbered cards trace the heart's arc: feeling begins, connects, wavers, grieves, heals, and finds home.
- Ace: an open heart, the start of deep feeling.
- Two: connection, attraction, a meeting of hearts.
- Three: friendship, celebration, shared joy.
- Four: restlessness, overlooking what's offered.
- Five: grief over loss, with something still remaining.
- Six: nostalgia, memory, gentle kindness.
- Seven: daydreams, options, beautiful illusions.
- Eight: walking away to seek something more fulfilling.
- Nine: contentment and satisfaction, the "wish" card.
- Ten: emotional fulfilment, harmony, belonging.
The Cups court
- Page: tenderness, imagination, sweet surprises.
- Knight: romance, charm, following the heart.
- Queen: compassion, intuition, emotional depth.
- King: emotional balance and calm under pressure.
All sixteen court cards run on one grid, explained in the court cards guide.
Reading Cups cards
A Cups-heavy spread is telling you the question is emotional, whatever words it was asked in. Suit theme plus the number's place in the arc (see the cheat sheet) reads almost every card. The Toe Bean Tarot app teaches the whole suit as its own course module, with lessons, quizzes, and review, on Google Play (iPhone coming soon). For every other card, here's all 78 tarot card meanings.