II, Suit of CupsTwo of Cups tarot card meaning
Upright and reversedTwo of Cups in shortIn short
The Two of Cups is two people meeting. A young woman and a young man face each other and pledge their cups, under a winged lion and the staff of Hermes. Love, friendship, a bond between equals.
- Partnership
- Attraction
- Union
Piece oneThe green hills
Low green hills rise under pale blue, over flat yellow ground. Waite doesn't describe the land. Here it is a gentle, ordinary place, and the meeting stays close to home.
Why it is hereThe low hills keep the meeting ordinary, a field near home where real bonds start. They sit at the bottom of the card, so the eye climbs past the couple to the joined cups and the winged lion. Quiet ground leaves room for the pledge.
Piece twoThe winged lion
A red lion's head with great spread wings hangs above the couple. Waite places it between the wings of the caduceus and says a few old versions of the card carry the sign. In ours the wings belong to the lion, and the staff rises right below.
"...between the great wings of which there appears a lion's head."Waite, 1911
Why it is hereThe lion sits above everything the couple does. It's the heat in the bond, passion with wings, and it crowns the caduceus rising out of their joined cups. The maiden and the youth stay calm below it. Their quiet pledge holds a fire the picture puts overhead, where both of them can feel it.
Piece threeThe maiden
The young woman wears a laurel wreath, a cream dress and a long blue cloak. She looks straight at him and holds out her cup. Waite's meanings start with love and run on through friendship and union.
"Love, passion, friendship, affinity, union, concord, sympathy"Waite, 1911
Why it is hereShe's the steady half of the pledge. Her laurel wreath marks honour, and her straight look tells you she means it. The youth leans in with patterned clothes and roses in his hair; she stands still in plain blue and cream. Together they make the balance the two matched cups show.
Piece fourThe two cups
They hold their gold cups side by side, and their hands touch between them. Above the cups rises the caduceus, the staff of Hermes with two snakes wound round it. A toast and a promise at once.
"A youth and maiden are pledging one another"Waite, 1911
Why it is hereThe cups are the pledge itself. Each person holds their own, so neither gives up a self to the other; they meet in the middle, hands touching. The caduceus rises from that meeting point to the winged lion. The hills, the maiden and the lion all lead back to this one gesture.
Colour, and where else it appearsEchoes
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The green hills
Pale blue, soft green, warm yellow. Blue is calm feeling, the Cups element, and the yellow warms the meeting. The same easy green hills roll behind the family in the Ten of Cups, where the bond from this card has grown into a home and children. In The Lovers the land rises into one red mountain behind the pair.
Also in -
The winged lion
Red-orange lion, deeper red wings: the hottest colour on the card, the passion above the cups. In Strength a woman holds a lion's open jaws with her bare hands, and the beast stands wild on the grass. On The World a calm lion rests in one corner, one of four creatures watching the dancer. Here the lion has wings and flies.
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The maiden
Calm blue and cream, water and clear sky. She brings the cool, steady side of the bond. Her laurel wreath comes back across the deck. The rider in the Six of Wands wears one for a victory in public. In the Seven of Cups a laurel wreath sits in a cup on a cloud, a prize that's only imagined. Hers she wears for a promise.
Also in -
The two cups
Two cups in the same gold under a near-black staff. They match, and that's the point. In the Three of Cups the toast grows: three women raise three cups high, friendship in place of a promise. In the Ten of Cups the couple lift their arms to the cups on a rainbow, and their hands hold no cups at all.
Also in
Colour notes are ours, read from the picture; Waite does not explain the colours.
Two of CupsUpright
Love and union. Waite's list runs long and bright: love, passion, friendship, affinity, union, concord, sympathy. A new romance, making up, a close friend, a good partner at work.
Two equals. Each brings a cup, each gives, and the two of them make something new. Meet the other person halfway.
Two of CupsReversed
Waite gives no reversed meaning in the card's main entry. In his later list of extra meanings, the reversed Two of Cups is passion.
Many readers today see a bond out of balance: a quarrel, a break, one side giving more, or desire with no real meeting behind it. Look at what each of you brings.
Yes or noYes.
Yes. Union and agreement, and a good answer. In love or partnership, a clear yes.
Two of Cups in your lifeIn your life
Love
Strong for love. Mutual attraction, a new couple, two people finding each other again.
Work
A good partner or a good deal. Work with one other person goes well now.
Money
Shared money, fair deals. Settle the terms together and you both gain.
Health
Support from someone close helps. A card can't diagnose you; if something's wrong, see a doctor.
Spirituality
Balance between two sides of you, or a friend who walks the path beside you.
Advice
Meet them as an equal. Give as much as you hope to get.
As a person
Loving, loyal, easy to be close to. A natural partner.
Past, present, future
Past: a meeting or bond that shaped you. Present: a partnership in balance. Future: a new union, or making up.
Written by us, from Waite's meanings and the picture.
Symbols and correspondencesAt a glance
- Suit
- Cups
- Element
- Water
- Astrology
- Venus in Cancer
- Sephira
- Chokmah
- Upright
- Love
- Reversed
- Passion
QuestionsCommon questions
Yes. It's one of the best cards for love and friendship: union and mutual respect.
Mutual attraction and a real bond. A new relationship, a commitment, or two people finding their way back.
Yes, above all about a relationship or a deal.
Waite describes a lion's head between the great wings of the caduceus of Hermes, above the cups. He says a few old versions of the card carry it, and leaves its curious meanings aside.
Venus in Cancer, in the Golden Dawn system: the planet of love in the first part of a water sign. Its element is water.
Waite reads love and union. Beyond fortune telling, he adds, it points to a desire outside nature that makes nature holy.
The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, 1911Card meanings and quotes: A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, 1911. Element, decan and sephira: the Golden Dawn's Book T. Colours, life situations, yes or no and questions: written by us, from Waite's meanings and the picture.
All 14 Cups