Six of Cups — Pleasure is a card of the Minor Arcana, suit of Cups in the Thoth Tarot. In a reading it speaks of pleasure, wellbeing, harmony and joy. In the Golden Dawn system it corresponds to the sephirah Tiphareth, the element Water and Sun in Scorpio in astrology.
pleasure · wellbeing · harmony · joy · fertility
What does Six of Cups mean?
A period of joy and emotional harmony: welcome it with gratitude and let it renew your energies.
Everyday meaning
Pleasure, wellbeing, emotional and physical harmony. It points to a period of joy, of health regained, of satisfaction in relationships and of desires that find natural fulfilment.
Psychological meaning
The ability to enjoy love and life without guilt and without excess; the emotional balance that makes pleasure nourishing and not compulsive.
Initiatic meaning
Water in Tiphareth, the harmonious heart, with the Sun in Scorpio in the second decan: solar fire warms the deep waters. Pleasure is emotion in balance, the joy born of vital fullness.
The shadow side
Ill-dignified, it signals hedonism, vanity, a pursuit of superficial pleasures.
Six 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:
Pleasure that runs out or becomes habit; difficulty enjoying, nostalgia for a past wellbeing.
Six of Cups in love, work and spirit
In love
A harmonious, sensual relationship, wellbeing as a couple, a rediscovery of shared pleasure.
At work and career
Satisfaction, a positive climate, calm successes achieved without forcing.
In spiritual practice
Pleasure as an expression of grace: sensuality made holy by awareness.
Kabbalah, astrology and the Hebrew letter of Six of Cups
Tiphareth · Water · Sun in Scorpio
Crowley on Six of Cups
In the Thoth deck six lotuses pour water into six cups without making them overflow: pleasure in its perfect measure, fertility without excess.
Frequently asked questions
What does Six of Cups mean in the Thoth Tarot?
A period of joy and emotional harmony: welcome it with gratitude and let it renew your energies.
What does Six of Cups mean in love?
A harmonious, sensual relationship, wellbeing as a couple, a rediscovery of shared pleasure.
What does Six of Cups mean for work and career?
Satisfaction, a positive climate, calm successes achieved without forcing.
What does Six 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: Pleasure that runs out or becomes habit; difficulty enjoying, nostalgia for a past wellbeing.
What are the Kabbalah and astrology correspondences of Six of Cups?
In the Golden Dawn system Six of Cups corresponds to the sephirah Tiphareth, the element Water and Sun in Scorpio in astrology.
