The suit of cups in a tarot deck are correlated to suits of hearts in regular playing cards. They may also be identified as vessels, cauldrons, goblets, chalices, or another related term depending on the type of tarot deck it is depicted in. Cups deal with emotions, love, and our feelings. They deal with the emotional level of our consciousnesses. Cups also reflect our spontaneous responses and our habitual reactions at our emotional level.
The direction the suit of cups is ruled by is the east. Its element is water and its color blue. Cups are associated with the deep mysteries of the essence of water. The water element is a symbol associated with the subconscious mind and reason. In the artwork you will often see flowing and watery objects with the cups suit. The zodiac signs associated with cups are water signs: Pisces, Cancer, and Scorpio. The season it corresponds to is the autumn (some tarot readers also relate the suit of cups to summer). Cups are yin or feminine energy. Cups also relate to the lunar and tidal cycles of the earth. They are the dreamlike aspect of the minor arcana.
In tarot readings they represent psychic and intuitiveness, the arts, fantasy and illusion, fertility, emotions, spirituality, sacred sexuality, grace and serenity. It is a suit of love and happiness. When we see a lot of cups in a spread it is telling us the person in question is seeking solutions to emotional matters of the heart, emotional conflicts and love matters.
In terms of symbolism The Suit of Cups have been likened to the Holy Grail Chalice, the stone cup of Soma, Isis's Pomegranate Cup, The Persian Cup of Jamshid, The Bloody Mysteries, and the Christian Communion Cup. It represents the holding of deepness, the well or memory and the record of our existence. Cups are associated with anything emotional from marriage, to personal relationships to possessions and concerns that affect us emotionally. This includes anything affecting partnerships including work relationships and, of course, interpersonal relationships.
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