Six of Cups
Two children share a cup of flowers, bringing warm memories and a pure heart to the surface. Tender time with old friends or family may be on its way.
Lingering too long in the past could make you miss what is happening right now.
The card's advice: Do something you loved doing as a child.
Six of Cups: reading the picture
In a courtyard under low giwa, Korean tiled roofs, two children hold one cup of flowers between them. One wears a white headband and a blue vest; the other wears a red skirt with a blossom in her hair. Older versions show an older child clearly handing the cup down. Here four hands wrap the same cup, so it's hard to say who is giving. That blur suits the card, since good memories rarely keep score. Four more flower-filled cups line the stone step in front, and another sits on a stone post at the left. Every cup holds flowers, not water. The past here hasn't dried up. It's still in bloom.
Six of Cups in love, work and money
- Love and relationships
Someone from your past may reach out, or the innocence of first love may come back to mind. Treasure the memories, but put your heart into making new ones with the person beside you.
- Work and study
People or experiences from your past may prove helpful once again. You might even find a clue for your current work in a field you loved when you were young.
- Money
Exchanging small gifts warms the heart right now. Rather than buying new nostalgic items, you may find more joy in caring for and using what you already own.
A message from a summer camp friend
A 44-year-old dad of two teenagers got a Facebook message from his best friend from summer camp, someone he hadn't talked to in thirty years. The friend was passing through town next month and asked about breakfast. He felt a rush of warmth, then hesitation: what would they even talk about now? He drew the Six of Cups. The flowers filling every cup read to him as kindness that had kept, not something stale. He said yes and dug out the old camp photo to bring along.
Questions to ask yourself after drawing Six of Cups
- What place or smell softens you the second you think of it, and where is it from?
- Who handed you a cup of flowers back then, and would it be all right to check in with them now?
- Are you visiting a memory right now, or wishing you could move back into it?
Six of Cups as a yes or no
Yes This card carries a gentle, kind energy, so matters tend to work out warmly without much strain.
Easy to confuse with Six of Pentacles
Both cards show something being handed over. In the Six of Pentacles a well-off figure holding scales drops coins to two kneeling people; the gap between giver and receiver is plain, and fairness is the question. In the Six of Cups the two children stand level and trade flowers, not money. Help with strings attached points to Pentacles. Missing someone points to Cups.
A common misreading of Six of Cups
Many people read the Six of Cups strictly as an ex coming back. An old flame can surface, but the picture centers on a gentle state of heart, not a specific person. An old friend, a hometown or a childhood hobby can be the flowers in this cup.
Symbols in Six of Cups
In an old village courtyard, an older child hands a cup filled with flowers to a younger one, a picture of kindness given freely. The six flower-filled cups mean happy memories from long ago still fill the heart today.
How we drew Six of Cups
- Kept from the 1909 card
Two children passing a cup of flowers, an old village courtyard, six cups
- What we changed
The two children wear hanbok, and the background is a village of giwa tile-roofed houses.