Six of Cups At A Glance
Keywords: Memories, ancestors, our roots, childhood memories, sentimentality, stuck in the past, unable to move on, disconnected from true self
Season: Winter
Element: Water (emotions)
Six of Cups Tarot Card Description
The Six of Cups is the sixth card in the minor arcana suit of Cups within tarot. The traditional card features art work that shows six cups dotted around in different places in a scene, all filled with flowers. There are 2 children playing in the foreground. One passes a flower filled cup to the other.
This represents the act of passing traditions to one another and then passing them down throughout time. Around the children features a brick wall which suggests a castle or other strong structure that was built to last for generations. This shows how the children are safe and secure because of the traditions reinforced all around them.
Six of Cups Upright Meaning
The Six of Cups is a positive card. It suggests we are looking back at our past with a happy view and holding the traditions we value close to our heart. The main focuses of this card are our childhood memories and the actions and traditions we have. How these actions and traditions support us and how they ground us to our community and loved ones.
This card can also symbolize our ancestors and our family as they travel back far into the past. This card does come with a warning though, it asks us to value our past, of course, but make sure we do not live in it and lose ourselves to it. But more of that in the reversed meaning section.
“When we are tired, we are attacked by ideas we conquered long ago.” - Friedrich Nietzsche
Six of Cups Reversed Meaning
Usually when the Six of Cups is presented to us reversed it is suggesting our past is holding us back. Either because we are lost to it, romanticizing it in which case the present can’t even begin to compare. Or that we might be running from an element in our past which still haunts us and is negatively affecting the decisions we make in the present day.
This card when reversed guides us gently to let go of our past a little bit. We don’t need to shut the past away for good we just need to loosen the reins a little and get some space between us and the hold that the past has on us.
“The past is a stepping stone, not a millstone.” - Robert Plant
Six of Cups: Yes or No
This is definitely a yes card. But it is guiding us to remember something important in our past that will help us make the most out of the situation or opportunity we might be saying yes to.
If we ask a yes or no question and we get the 6 of Cups reversed then it means no, we are currently processing something important about our past and we are not able to take more on right now.
Let’s Break Down the Six of Cups In Our Lives
The Six of Cups in our love, career, financial and what it means in other popular areas of our lives.
Six of Cups In Love
New love from an old flame may greet you in the Six of Cups in a love question or placement. This can be romantic or platonic but it generally means someone we used to know coming back into our present life.
Reversed are we carrying a torch for a past lover or perhaps comparing every new potential love interest to ‘the one that got away?’ This is what the Six of Cups reversed is asking us to find out. If our past love life is affecting our present we need to address what is causing this.
Six of Cups With Money
There is a lot of positivity surrounding this card when it comes to our finances. It can signify a well-timed gift or donation being very helpful to our financial situation. Or it can imply one of our talents or skills becoming financially profitable.
Reversed the Six of Cups is letting us know that we are ready to take that next big step. We may be diverting majorly from our past traditions into a new area that we have never attempted before. We are being guided to trust in ourselves and keep moving forward.
Six of Cups At Work
The 6 of Cups in a career placement suggests we look back to our past to help our career progress. It asks us: what did we dream of doing as a child and is there a way we can bring some child-like joy into our adult lives now?
Reversed this card says if we hit a lull in our careers it can be tempting to harken back to ‘the good old days’ but we must remember not to spend too much time in this mind frame as it won’t help our current situation. We need to instead look forward and get excited about something in our future making its way to us.
Six of Cups With Others
We may be overcoming recent loss and part of this process is to look back over the past and remember how good it was. This card warns us not to spend too much time in this way though because we often look back with rose-tinted glasses and make our past so magical that the present feels painful to come back to. The Six of Cups asks us to find the balance between wistful and joyful and slowly take steps to change our present day closer to this
Reversed this card is asking us to sharply come back to the present. The past can teach us and be valuable to us but we can not live there and trying to will only cause us great misery and disappointment. Use the parts of our past we loved as a guide and bring them into the now, we can shape our present by those values and in time live in a more fulfilling way.
Six of Cups With Self
If we see this card in a reading we can rest assured that we are being guided to look over our past as there may be an action or tradition which we used to do that we need to participate in again. As it will help us connect with a part of ourselves that has felt lost or missing.
Reversed it is asking us to return to a familiar place that feels safe to us. It can mean we are visiting our home town again or walking past a house we used to live in. How nostalgic we feel when this happens and how it unlocks memories that we thought we had completely forgotten. By letting ourselves go on this journey (mentally if not possible not physically) we are able to connect more effectively with that younger version of ourselves.
Six of Cups As Feelings
The Six of Cups feels like finding a childhood toy in our attic and remembering all over again how much this used to mean to us. How memories will flood our mind and we can get lost happily in the past. It feels like child-like joy and escapism.
