Prince of Cups

Meanings according to Rider-Waite:

ASTROLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE: Venus/Moon as a symbol of warmth of heart and good cheer.

PRINCE OF CUPS The Prince of Cups signifies a kind, friendly atmosphere, good cheer, and a wise smile. This is a time of meditation, a sense of harmony, romantic reveries, and a readiness to fall in love. Where strife and conflict have reigned, this card heralds reconciliation and peace. It also represents hours of leisure, a time when we give free rein to our imagination, delight in the beauty of life, and revel in art, especially music.

From the book: Hajo Banzhaf. THE TAROT HANDBOOK. Translated from German by E. Kolesov. Publisher: Center for Astrological Research, 1999.

PRINCE OF CUPS Connected with this person will most likely be some invitation or opportunity that will present itself in the near future. This person may embody for you the ideal of attractiveness and progressiveness. It may also be someone who greets you upon your arrival somewhere. One who summons you to one undertaking or another. Associated with this card is the concept of inquiry, expectation. The card may symbolize approach, advancement, attractiveness, appeasement, correspondence.

UPRIGHT POSITION Astrological equivalents: Aquarius, Uranus in the Third House, Sun, Mercury, Neptune — in the Eleventh. With the PRINCE OF CUPS there may also be associated some financial offer advantageous to you. Or this is a person who knocks you out of your comfort, whatever his motives may be. The latter, however, should be shown by subsequent cards.

REVERSED POSITION Astrological equivalents: Gemini, the Third House, Mercury, Jupiter, Neptune in Gemini. This is a personality inclined to ostentation and fraud. This person is most likely weak and incapable of open struggle, and therefore the methods he employs are quite dirty. He is capable of betraying you, deceiving you, leading you by the nose. Sometimes the reversed PRINCE OF CUPS symbolizes a kind of subtle, insubstantial personality. There is something unreal, tinsel-like about him (Neptune).

If the card denotes action. A. Upright card Indicates a feeling that is striding broadly toward its culmination and is already not far from it. If it is a matter of a presentiment, then it is already taking on quite definite forms. If it is a matter of a creative conception, then the results are about to be realized. Words expressing emotions are about to be spoken. B. Reversed card Indicates the incompleteness of everything symbolized by the upright position of the card: it is a presentiment, a foreboding still too vague to speak of in specific terms. It is a feeling about which it is too early to express any opinion (it still requires verification); it is a conception (in need of refinement) whose realization at the present moment appears premature. Perhaps it will not be realized at all. In any case, it must be reworked.