The Six of Cups tarot card, one of the Minor Arcana, is unique among tarot cards in that it directly communicates an aspect of the past. In a scene much more detailed than most other Minor Arcana cards, the Six of Cups dispalys a nostalgic scene full of imagery and symbolism. In divinatory tarot reading, it indicates nostalgia, openness, and unconditional acceptance.
The Rider-Waite tarot deck's illustration of the Six of Cups shows a man in an elf-like outfit, giving a young girl a cup that holds a flower. Behind him is another vase-cup, and four others sit in the foreground. Behind the two, a charming, nostalgic village scene fills the background. The flowers are star-shaped and white, perhaps asters.
Most tarot readers interpret the charming, childlike, and idyllic images on the Six of Cups as a sign of the unconditional lovingness associated with childhood. It may also, depending on the context of the tarot reading, symbolize a person who is immature but filled with innocence and wonder. The Six of Cups also represents nostalgia and bittersweet longing for bygone times.
The Six of Cups suggests that the subject of the tarot reading look to his or her past childhood for advice on dealing with a current situation, and may indicate the healthiness of indulging one's own "inner child". While it carries a subtle warning against excessive nostalgia, the Six of Cups also encourages a certain degree of childlike openness, friendship, and generosity.
When the Six of Cups appears in a spread relating to an interpersonal issue, such as a friendship or relationship that is going badly, it speaks for open-mindedness and childlike joy in sharing. By asking the tarot reader to recall events when young children have shared, loved, and inspired through selfless acts, it encourages the sense of wonder and unconditional love that many have outgrown.
The message becomes more explicitly demanding when the Six of Cups tarot card is drawn in reverse. Many tarot readers view the reversed Six of Cups as not a suggestion, but a demand that the tarot reading's subject approach the issue at hand with the simple wisdom of childhood. The subject of the tarot reading should recall a time when he or she acted through selfless and unconditional love as a child-- only through this pure wisdom will the querent succeed in his current endeavor.
