Tarot · Minor Arcana · Cups

Six of Cups

  • tenderness
  • memory
  • innocence
  • generosity

Key facts

Arcana
Minor Arcana
Suit
Cups
Number
6
Numerology
6 (The Adjustment: cooperation, collaboration, interaction)
Keywords
tenderness, memory, innocence, generosity

Six of Cups upright

The Six of Cups is cups offered with the sweetness of childhood, with no calculation. A tender memory, a warm nostalgia rises up and reminds you who you are deep down. It’s the pleasure of giving for the sake of giving, of finding again an innocence that feels good. Let this sweetness move through you; it connects you to what truly matters.

Six of Cups reversed

Reversed, the Six of Cups speaks of a past idealized to the point of forgetting to live today. Nostalgia becomes a refuge, lovely but a little too comfortable. You can keep the tenderness of the memory without locking yourself inside it. The present deserves you to offer it your cup too.

A question to sit with

Which sweetness from the past would you love to tenderly bring back into your present?

Frequently asked questions about Six of Cups

What does Six of Cups mean upright?
The Six of Cups is cups offered with the sweetness of childhood, with no calculation. A tender memory, a warm nostalgia rises up and reminds you who you are deep down. It’s the pleasure of giving for the sake of giving, of finding again an innocence that feels good. Let this sweetness move through you; it connects you to what truly matters.
What does Six of Cups mean reversed?
Reversed, the Six of Cups speaks of a past idealized to the point of forgetting to live today. Nostalgia becomes a refuge, lovely but a little too comfortable. You can keep the tenderness of the memory without locking yourself inside it. The present deserves you to offer it your cup too.

Sources

  • Arthur Edward Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, William Rider & Son, 1911.
  • Rachel Pollack, Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom, Weiser Books, 1980.