Cups · Water
Six of Cups Tarot card meaning
Sweet memories and simple kindness from the past.
- Suit
- Cups (Water)
- Number
- 6
- Upright
- nostalgia, memories, innocence, kindness
- Reversed
- stuck in the past, idealised memories
- Yes or no
- Yes
What Six of Cups means
The Six of Cups is the card of sweet memories and simple kindness. In an old village courtyard, one child offers a cup full of white flowers to a smaller child. It speaks of innocence, comfort and the past, and of the small gifts people give each other without expecting anything back. It often feels like a warm memory returning.
Six of Cups upright
Upright, the Six of Cups often brings the past gently into the present. You might hear from an old friend, find a box of photos, revisit a childhood place or cook a dish a grandparent used to make. These moments can soothe and remind you who you are underneath the busy adult routines. Sixes in tarot carry harmony and giving, and here that harmony is tender and uncomplicated.
The child handing over the flowers also points to kindness in its simplest form. The card may invite you to give freely, to play, or to approach a situation with fresh, open eyes instead of cynicism. It can show a reunion, a friendship based on shared history, or a safe, familiar place where you can rest. Let yourself enjoy what is good about the past, and carry its warmth into today.
Six of Cups reversed
Reversed, the Six of Cups suggests the past has too strong a hold. You may be stuck replaying the good old days, comparing everyone new to someone from years ago, or remembering a time as better than it really was. A school reunion or an old song can pull you backwards for days.
Nostalgia is comforting, but it can keep you from noticing what is possible now. The reversal invites you to keep your memories while living in the present. In some readings it can also show stepping out of an old family role or finally growing past a childhood pattern, which is healthy movement forward.
Six of Cups in love and relationships
Upright
Like a cup of flowers passed from one child to another, romance under this card is sweet, playful and comforting. It can show an old flame or childhood friend coming back into view, or a relationship that feels safe and familiar. For couples it may invite you to revisit the places and habits from when you first met. Nothing about it is dramatic, and that gentleness is its charm.
Reversed
Is it the person you miss, or the summer you were both seventeen? Upside down, this card can mean measuring a current partner against a rose-tinted memory of an ex. Ask which one you truly long for, and give the present a fair chance.
Six of Cups for career and money
Upright
Familiar ground is the theme in a job or a classroom: returning to an old skill, reconnecting with a former colleague, or work that involves children, care or creativity. It can also suggest a friendly, cooperative atmosphere where people help each other. Drawing on what you loved doing as a child may spark a useful idea now.
Reversed
Reversed, the card can warn against clinging to the way things used to be done. A new tool, team or method may feel uncomfortable, but refusing it could hold you back. Respect the experience you have, and stay curious about what is changing.
Six of Cups as feelings
Warm nostalgia, tenderness and affection fill this card when it describes a heart. Someone may feel safe with you, think fondly of shared memories or feel a sweet, uncomplicated kind of care. For your own heart, it may point to missing a simpler time, or to a soft spot for someone from your past.
Six of Cups: yes or no?
Yes This is a gentle yes, especially for reunions, kindness and familiar comforts. Just make sure you are seeing the present clearly too.
As adviceLet a good memory warm you, then share that kindness with someone in the present.
Symbolism and imagery
What is pictured on the traditional Rider-Waite-Smith Six of Cups card, and how each part is usually read:
- A child offering a cup of flowers to another: kindness, innocence and simple gifts
- The old courtyard: childhood, memories and the past
What Waite wrote in 1910
Arthur Edward Waite created this deck with the artist Pamela Colman Smith, and gave its meanings in The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910, revised 1911). His words come from the old fortune-telling tradition and can sound stark or puzzling today. They are here so you can see where the modern meanings above come from.
Children in an old garden, their cups filled with flowers.
A card of the past and of memories, looking back, as — for example — on childhood; happiness, enjoyment, but coming rather from the past; things that have vanished. Another reading reverses this, giving new relations, new knowledge, new environment, and then the children are disporting in an unfamiliar precinct.
The future, renewal, that which will come to pass presently.
Source: A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (London: William Rider & Son, 1911), public domain. Read the full text.
Journal prompts
Questions to sit with when Six of Cups appears:
- Which memory from my past brings me comfort right now?
- Am I remembering this time as it was, or as I wish it had been?
- How could I offer a small, simple kindness to someone today?
Spreads to draw Six of Cups in
Questions about Six of Cups
Is the Six of Cups a good card?
Yes, it is generally a warm and positive card about kindness, happy memories and comfort. Its only caution is not to get so lost in the past that you miss the present.
What does the Six of Cups mean in love?
In love it points to sweet, playful affection and sometimes an old flame returning. It can also invite couples to reconnect with the simple joys of their early days together.
What does the Six of Cups reversed mean?
Reversed, it often shows being stuck in the past or idealising old memories. It invites you to honour what was good while making room for what is happening now.
Explore Six of Cups in a reading
Ask what is on your mind and draw your own cards. The free reading shows each card's meaning in its place.
Tarot is a tool for reflection, not a prediction, and never a replacement for medical, legal, financial or mental health help.
