Queen of Cups Tarot Card Meaning & Interpretations

Court cards, like the Queen of Cups, are unnumbered which makes using numerology to unlock their basic symbology a trickier exercise. On the surface we have the female ruler of the elemental domain of Water but not much else to go on. We can, however, link Tarot's Queens to their supreme ruler and card number 3 of the Major Arcana, The Empress, which would give any Queen a numerological attribute of 3 by proxy.

The same element and numerology is found in the 3 of Cups with its three happy maidens dancing in a circle, cups held high in celebration. The Queen of Cups may once have been one of these happy three. It may have been the night before or much further in the past when she was younger and free from the responsibilities of the high position she now holds.

The Rider-Waite-Smith (RWS) deck's Queen of Cups faces left, or west, in the direction of the past. She holds a single large chalice ornately decorated to honour the precious liquid held within. Her head is bowed as she intently stares at this beautiful container. At her feet is the shore of a lake or sea. Water, or love and emotions, are abundant here but she chooses to focus on the container which we can only assume holds water more precious to her than the water at her feet. This is someone who has known love, friends and happy times and prefers to dwell on those memories than to see the new ones right in front of her in the present moment.

The Queen of Cups can be a gentle person with a good heart, the perfect partner or wife, a loving mother or a loyal friend. She maybe sensitive, affectionate, perceptive, intuitive, nostalgic, melancholic, (saudade) or perhaps a little bit naive and gullible. Her vocation in life may be related to the element of water, she could be a counsellor, psychologist or someone who works in an aquarium.

© Phuture Me Ltd 2010-2019. All rights reserved.

THE PICTORIAL KEY TO THE TAROT

By Arthur Edward Waite (1911)

Beautiful, fair, dreamy -- as one who sees visions in a cup. This is, however, only one of her aspects; she sees, but she also acts, and her activity feeds her dream. Divinatory Meanings: Good, fair woman; honest, devoted woman, who will do service to the Querent; loving intelligence, and hence the gift of vision; success, happiness, pleasure; also wisdom, virtue; a perfect spouse and a good mother. Reversed: The accounts vary; good woman; otherwise, distinguished woman but one not to be trusted; perverse woman; vice, dishonour, depravity.

Related Tarot Cards

© Phuture Me Ltd 2018. All rights reserved.