Three of Cups
The three of cups in the tarot's Minor Arcana: three maidens in a garden raising their cups as if pledging one another. A. E. Waite read it as plenty, happy endings, victory and healing.
Meaning
Waite describes the card: "Maidens in a garden-ground with cups uplifted, as if pledging one another."
What does the Three of Cups mean?
Waite's meanings are "the conclusion of any matter in plenty, perfection and merriment; happy issue, victory, fulfilment, solace, healing"; reversed, "expedition, dispatch, achievement, end. It signifies also the side of excess in physical enjoyment, and the pleasures of the senses". His list of additional meanings adds "unexpected advancement for a military man", and reversed, "consolation, cure, end of the business".
In older decks
In Italian packs the suit is coppe, cups: the earliest suit marks, the British Museum's catalogue of 1876 records, were coppe, danari, bastoni and spade, "cups, money, clubs, and swords". Papus reads it as "the love is mutual".
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
Last reviewed September 28, 2026 by Rory Hansen. How we research