Minor Arcana · Cups

Six of Cups

The past, handed over gently.

Upright · Reversed

Keywords: memory, the sweetness of before
Upright: Return to something earlier — nostalgia, a childhood kindness, an old bond. Warm and worth visiting.
Reversed: Living in the earlier thing; or a past sweetened past recognition.

In a three-card spread

In the Past position: Read as what is still exerting force — not what happened, but the part of it still pushing on the present.
In the Present position: Read as what is currently available, and where you actually stand. The spread usually turns on this card.
In the Future position: Read as tendency: where this leans if nothing changes. A statement about the present phrased as a direction — never a claim about what will happen.

III

Its suit · Its rank

Its suit

Cups · Element: Water

Cups govern feeling and relationship: what flows, what is received, what spills. Their question is what you feel, not what you should do. Cups trouble is usually distortion — taking wanting for having, or avoidance for peace.

Its rank

Six

Six is recovery after the Five: giving, crossing, being seen. Not a return to before — going on, carrying the Five's mark.

Six of Cups

Upright · Reversed

In a three-card spread

Its suit · Its rank

Cups · Element: Water

Six

The same rank in the other suits

Six of Cups

Upright · Reversed

In a three-card spread

Its suit · Its rank

Cups · Element: Water

Six

The same rank in the other suits