Ace of Cups — Root of the Powers of Water is a card of the Minor Arcana, suit of Cups in the Thoth Tarot. In a reading it speaks of budding love, receptivity, grace and emotional fertility. In the Golden Dawn system it corresponds to the sephirah Kether, the element Water and Root of Water in astrology.
budding love · receptivity · grace · emotional fertility · openness
What does Ace of Cups mean?
The heart opens: welcome what arrives without calculating. A favourable moment for love, creativity and emotional healing.
Everyday meaning
The principle of love, joy and emotional fertility. It announces a new feeling, a reconciliation, a gift, a period of the heart opening.
Psychological meaning
The capacity to receive: the heart that empties itself so that it can be filled. It invites you to lower your defences and let life touch you.
Initiatic meaning
The Ace in Kether: the root of Water and the first He of the Tetragrammaton, the Mother as a cup receiving the Father's force. Its throne is the celestial quadrant of Libra, Scorpio and Sagittarius, governed by the Princess of Cups.
The shadow side
Ill-dignified, it signals sentimentality, overflowing emotion, a dependence on the need to be loved.
Ace of Cups reversed
The Thoth Tarot is traditionally read without reversed cards: the reader judges from the cards around it whether a card is well or ill dignified. This is its ill-dignified or blocked reading:
Emotions held back or drained, difficulty receiving; or a wave of feeling that drowns judgement.
Ace of Cups in love, work and spirit
In love
A new love, declarations, reconciliation, deep intimacy possible.
At work and career
A harmonious environment, projects born from sincere passion, caring or artistic work.
In spiritual practice
The inner Grail: receptivity as the condition of grace.
Kabbalah, astrology and the Hebrew letter of Ace of Cups
Kether · Water · Root of Water
Crowley on Ace of Cups
Crowley paints the Holy Grail resting on a crescent moon and receiving a ray of white light from above, over a sea of lotuses: the Cup as the matrix of the supreme Mother.
Frequently asked questions
What does Ace of Cups mean in the Thoth Tarot?
The heart opens: welcome what arrives without calculating. A favourable moment for love, creativity and emotional healing.
What does Ace of Cups mean in love?
A new love, declarations, reconciliation, deep intimacy possible.
What does Ace of Cups mean for work and career?
A harmonious environment, projects born from sincere passion, caring or artistic work.
What does Ace of Cups mean reversed?
The Thoth Tarot is traditionally read without reversed cards: the reader judges from the cards around it whether a card is well or ill dignified. This is its ill-dignified or blocked reading: Emotions held back or drained, difficulty receiving; or a wave of feeling that drowns judgement.
What are the Kabbalah and astrology correspondences of Ace of Cups?
In the Golden Dawn system Ace of Cups corresponds to the sephirah Kether, the element Water and Root of Water in astrology.
