Ten of Cups
The ten of cups in the tarot's Minor Arcana: a couple and their children beneath a rainbow of ten cups, a home beyond. A. E. Waite read it as contentment and the perfection of love and friendship.
Meaning
In Waite's words: "Appearance of Cups in a rainbow; it is contemplated in wonder and ecstacy by a man and woman below, evidently husband and wife. His right arm is about her; his left is raised upward; she raises her right arm."
What does the Ten of Cups mean?
Waite's meanings are "contentment, repose of the entire heart; the perfection of that state; also perfection of human love and friendship; if with several picture-cards, a person who is taking charge of the Querent's interests; also the town, village or country inhabited by the Querent"; reversed, "repose of the false heart, indignation, violence". His list of additional meanings adds "for a male Querent, a good marriage and one beyond his expectations", and reversed, "sorrow; also a serious quarrel".
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 "Uncertainty in the management of the love affair."
Read next
- Next in Tarot cardsPage of CupsThe page of cups in the tarot's Minor Arcana: a studious page looking at a fish rising from a cup. A. E. Waite read it as a studious young man, news and reflection.
- 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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