Four of Cups
The four of cups in the tarot's Minor Arcana: a young man under a tree, discontented with three cups, as a hand from a cloud offers a fourth. A. E. Waite read it as weariness, disgust and aversion.
Meaning
Waite's Key to the Tarot describes the design: "A young man is seated under a tree and contemplates three cups set on the grass before him; an arm issuing from a cloud offers him another cup. His expression notwithstanding is one of discontent with his environment."
What does the Four of Cups mean?
Waite's meanings are "weariness, disgust, aversion, imaginary vexations, as if the wine of this world had caused satiety only; another wine, as if a fairy gift, is now offered the wastrel, but he sees no consolation therein"; reversed, "novelty, presage, new instruction, new relations". His list of additional meanings adds "contrarieties", and reversed, "presentiment".
In older decks
In Italian packs the suit is coppe, cups, one of the four suit marks the British Museum's catalogue of 1876 gives for the earliest cards. Papus reads it as "Serious obstacles to the love. They arise from other persons, not from the lovers."
Read next
- Next in Tarot cardsFive of CupsThe five of cups in the tarot's Minor Arcana: a cloaked figure looking at three spilled cups, two still standing behind him. A. E. Waite read it as loss, but with something left over.
- The same shape in Andean and Inca symbolsTumi (ceremonial knife)A ceremonial knife with a half-moon blade from the north coast of ancient Peru. The gold tumis of the Sicán (Lambayeque) culture carry a god on the handle, often identified as Naylamp, the dynasty’s mythical founder. The Tumi de Oro was declared a pre-Columbian symbol of Peru in 1981.
See also
The Fool, The Magician, The High Priestess, The Empress, The Emperor, The Hierophant.
Sources
- The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, by A. E. Waite, William Rider & Son, London, 1910 (the sacred-texts.com transcription, on the Internet Archive), The Lesser Arcana; Some Additional Meanings of the Lesser Arcana
- The Tarot of the Bohemians, by Papus, Chapman & Hall, London, 1896, translated by A. P. Morton (scan on the Internet Archive), The Divining Tarot, second lesson: the minor arcana
- A Descriptive Catalogue of Playing and Other Cards in the British Museum, by W. H. Willshire, Trustees of the British Museum, London, 1876 (scan on the Internet Archive), General history: the marks of the suits
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols formed from curves and waves, letters and numbers or squares and rectangles.
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed September 30, 2026. How we research
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