Seven of Cups
The seven of cups in the tarot's Minor Arcana: strange cups of vision, filled with fantastic images. A. E. Waite read it as imagination and fancies with nothing lasting behind them.
Meaning
Waite's description of the picture: "Strange chalices of vision, but the images are more especially those of the fantastic spirit."
What does the Seven of Cups mean?
Waite's meanings are "fairy favours, images of reflection, sentiment, imagination, things seen in the glass of contemplation; some attainment in these degrees, but nothing permanent or substantial is suggested"; reversed, "desire, will, determination, project". His list of additional meanings adds "fair child; idea, design, resolve, movement", and reversed, "success, if accompanied by the Three of Cups".
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 "Success assured to the lovers."
Read next
- Next in Tarot cardsEight of CupsThe eight of cups in the tarot's Minor Arcana: a dejected man walking away from eight cups. A. E. Waite read it as the decline of a matter, or else joy and modesty.
- 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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