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Mystorae

Two of Cups

A pledge between two people, love, friendship, or affinity meeting openly, without one side claiming more than the other.

Upright

  • union
  • affinity
  • sympathy
  • concord
  • passion
  • interrelation

At its plainest, this card is about two people recognizing something in each other and meeting it openly, the raised cups are a kind of mutual toast, a pledge rather than a one-sided offer. Waite is clear that this covers friendship and affinity as much as romance or attraction; he does not treat this as exclusively a love card. He also leaves in a strange, almost philosophical line about a desire that stands outside ordinary nature yet gives it meaning, worth sitting with rather than flattening into "soulmates" or a guaranteed match, since he never claims that.

Traditional meaning.

Waite gives this card as love, passion, friendship, affinity, union, concord, and sympathy, naming both romantic and non-romantic bonds without ranking one above the other. He adds "the interrelation of the sexes," and then, set apart as his own aside rather than a standard divinatory meaning, "that desire which is not in Nature, but by which Nature is sanctified." This last phrase does not explain itself: he calls it a desire outside Nature that nonetheless sanctifies Nature, a paradox he leaves unresolved rather than a plain statement about romance.

Symbolism

A youth and a maiden face one another, each raising a cup as if pledging the other. Above the cups the Caduceus of Hermes rises, and between its great wings sits a lion's head. Waite notes this is a variant found in only a few older versions of the card, and says frankly that whatever emblematic meanings attach to it "do not concern us in this place", he shows the reader the symbol and then declines to interpret it further.

In this context

A relationship
Waite lists love and passion directly, alongside "the interrelation of the sexes." This can reflect mutual attraction or a pledge being made or considered. His closing line about a desire "not in Nature" but which sanctifies it resists easy translation, it may be worth holding as an open question rather than reducing it to a promise of romantic destiny, which the source does not make.
A decision I am weighing
Where a choice involves another person, this can point toward weighing whether an exchange feels genuinely mutual, pledged from both sides, rather than assumed or one-directional.
Something about myself
Affinity and sympathy, as Waite names them, are not only about romance; they can describe recognizing common ground with another person or reconnecting with a part of oneself that wants concord rather than conflict.

Sit with this

  • Where in your life right now does a bond feel genuinely mutual, pledged from both sides?
  • Waite lists love, friendship, and affinity together, without ranking them, which of those feels most present for you today?
  • What do you make of a desire the source calls outside Nature yet says sanctifies it, does that language mean anything to you right now?

Reversed

  • broken pledge
  • no reversed meaning given
  • the union undone
  • silence in the source

This card usually shows two people making a pledge to each other over raised cups, with a winged staff and a lion's head watching over them, a picture of an agreement being sealed. Waite never actually wrote down what it means when this card is reversed; he only describes the upright scene. So this reversed reading works from the shape of the upright picture rather than from a rule Waite gave: if upright is a pledge being made, reversed can be read as that pledge not forming, faltering, or not yet mutual. It is worth naming plainly that this is an inference, not something the source states.

Traditional meaning.

Waite gives no divinatory meaning for this card reversed; his text covers only the upright pledge between youth and maiden. Read reversed, the honest reading is that the source itself is silent here, the traditional meaning of the reversal is not attested and should not be invented. What can be drawn, cautiously, is the shadow of the upright picture: where the upright shows a pledge being made, the reversed position can be read as that pledging not holding, or not yet formed.

Symbolism

The upright card shows a youth and maiden pledging one another with raised cups, and above them the Caduceus of Hermes, its wings framing a lion's head, a device Waite notes appears in a few old examples and carries 'curious emblematical meanings' he declines to go into. Reversed, this same imagery is inverted: the pledge, the meeting of cups, and the crowning sign above it are read as unrealised, interrupted, or turned away from rather than completed.

In this context

A relationship
The upright image is of two people meeting as equals over a shared cup. Reversed, this can be read as one side of that meeting not currently matching the other, an imbalance, a pledge not made, or a connection not yet mutual. This is a prompt to look honestly at where things stand, not a verdict on the relationship or on what anyone else feels.
A decision I am weighing
If the upright pairing suggests two parties reaching agreement, the reversed position can point to a decision or agreement that has not actually been reached, however it may appear on the surface. Worth checking whether a 'yes' assumed by one side has genuinely been given by the other.
Something about myself
Where the upright shows a pledge exchanged with another, reversed can be turned inward: a pledge to oneself not yet kept, or a part of oneself not yet in agreement with another part. The lack of a source meaning here leaves room to sit with the image rather than resolve it.

Sit with this

  • Where the upright card shows two people pledging as equals, is there a pledge in your life that has not actually been mutual?
  • Is there an agreement you have assumed was made, that may need to be checked rather than taken for granted?
  • What would it mean to raise your own cup even if the other has not yet raised theirs?

Sit with this

Each meaning is written by us and grounded in A. E. Waite’s The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910), which is in the public domain. Nothing appears here until a person has read it.

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Source: Arthur Edward Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910), public domain. Two of Cups (p. 80). Knowledge version 0.1.0.