Six of Cups
Six of Cups — Upright
The Six of Cups symbolizes happy childhood memories, reunions with family, and cherished ideals from the past. In family and love matters, harmony is restored. The card can also signify the celebration of special events.
In combination with travel-related cards, it can represent a return home and new opportunities for emotional happiness or the creation of a cozy home.
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Six of Cups — Reversed
It's time to let go of bitter memories and live in the present. The reversed card indicates the need to part ways with the past, friends, and old attachments.
Astrology
The Six of Cups reflects the Sun’s illumination in Scorpio’s emotional depth. It evokes nostalgia, innocence, and the memory of past bonds. The Sun reveals warmth in recollection, while Scorpio brings depth to those experiences.
Numerology
Number 6 symbolizes harmony, success, and movement. It reveals the card’s role in the progression of the Wands suit, showing a stage of 6. The reduced number 6 emphasizes recurring life themes in creative or passionate pursuits.
Symbolism & Archetypes
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Children playing in an old garden, filling their cups with flowers. Prophetic meanings: The card is associated with the past and memories, such as childhood; it symbolizes happiness and joy, primarily stemming from the past; that which is irretrievably gone.
Another interpretation predicts new connections, knowledge, surroundings, and in this case, the children are playing in an unfamiliar place. Reversed card: The future, renewal; upcoming events.
In the Golden Dawn system, the card is named the Lord of Pleasure. Astrologically, the card is associated with the second decan of Scorpio, where the Sun is in Scorpio.
This is the only positive card in the Scorpio series because it symbolizes emotional enjoyment, unlike the Five of Cups (emotional disappointment) and the Seven of Cups (emotional delusion).
Waite presents the card as memories of the past and a glimpse of childhood. In the image, two children hold a cup with flowers in a garden in front of a castle and a house. The exchange of cups is reminiscent of the Two of Cups, but here it happens in reality.
This is a parallel between the Father and Mother Tetragrammaton (Two of Cups) and the Son and Daughter (Six of Cups).
Waite combines Mathers' concept of Scorpio's pleasure with nostalgic memories of the past. This deviates from Mathers' definitions in Book T and does not correspond to the sixth Sephirah on the Tree of Life, adding the theme of the past or a return to it.
Waite likely drew from Mathers' pamphlet Tarot, where the Six of Cups is described as the past, departed, gone and reversed – the future, soon to come. This allowed Waite to depart from the esoteric meaning of the card in the Golden Dawn system.
In his interpretation of the Six of Cups, Waite uses Mathers' definitions, affirming that his source was the pamphlet. The unique Tarot order presented in Waite's book, where the Magician leads the Major Arcana, and the Minor Arcana goes from the Ten to the Ace, aligns with the order in Mathers' Tarot, based on Étteilla's research.
On the pedestal beneath the upper cup, there is the coat of arms of Valentinus Andreae, the founder of the Rosicrucians, symbolizing the union of the Five of the microcosm and the Six of the macrocosm, representing the alchemical Great Work.
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