· The Six Of Cups ·
MINOR ARCANA
Six. Memory. The past returning kindly.
A young figure holds out a cup filled with white flowers to a smaller figure, who reaches up to take it.
The cup has flowers in it rather than water. Nothing here is being drunk. This is a gift, and the gift is beauty rather than sustenance.
Four more flowered cups stand on the ground around them and one on a pedestal behind. Six in all, and every one of them holds flowers.
They are in the courtyard of an old house. Somewhere established, somewhere that has been there a long time, somewhere safe.
The exchange is unguarded. One offers, the other reaches, and neither of them is calculating anything. That is the difference between this card and the Two of Cups. That was two equals.
This is one giving freely to someone smaller.
- Upright -
Nostalgia. Innocence. Kindness. The past returning.
The Six of Cups upright is the past arriving with something good in it.
Someone from earlier in your life, a memory that surfaces warmly, a place you return to, a piece of the past that turns out to still be there. Where this card appears, looking back does you good rather than harm.
It is a card of innocence, which does not mean naivety. It means the capacity to give something without working out first what you get back. The child in the card is not a warning about immaturity. It is a reminder of how you used to do things before you learned to be careful.
There is genuine kindness here. Small generosities, unguarded affection, doing something for someone with no return expected.
It often indicates children, or childhood, or a relationship that carries the ease of one. Old friends, a family home, someone who knew you before you were established.
Be uncomplicated about something. Give the flowers.
- Reversed -
Stuck in the past. Idealising. Moving forward. Letting go.
Reversed, the past has become a place you live rather than one you visit.
The most common reading is nostalgia that has stopped serving you. A version of your life you keep returning to, a relationship you have polished into something it never was, a golden period that was not quite as golden as it has become in memory. Reversed, this card asks whether the past is being remembered or being edited.
It can mean living backward. Making current decisions to protect an old story about yourself, or comparing everything present against something finished.
Reversed can also indicate the opposite and better reading: finally moving forward. Releasing the past, leaving a place, growing out of something you have outgrown.
There is sometimes a reading about naivety. Being too trusting, giving without discernment, and being taken advantage of for it.
- in Major Life Domains -
- Love -
Upright
Someone from your past reappearing, or a relationship with real ease and warmth in it. Also childhood sweethearts and long friendships turning into more.
In a relationship, tenderness and simple kindness.
Reversed
Holding on to an ex, or comparing someone present to someone finished. Reversed can also mean a reconnection that is better left in memory.
- Career and Money -
Upright
An old contact, a previous employer, a former colleague. Work with a familiar element to it.
With money, something from the past resolving in your favour.
Reversed
Clinging to a version of your career that has ended, or a workplace that keeps referring to how things used to be.
- Health -
Upright
Comfort and ease. Rest, familiar things, being looked after.
Reversed
Something old resurfacing. Also nostalgia used as avoidance rather than comfort.
- Yes or No -
Upright
Yes.
Reversed
Not yet. Something from the past needs releasing first.
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