Four of Cups Tarotcard Archieven

Tag: Four of Cups Tarotcard

Tarot card Four of Cups is a card from the Minor Arcana. The Rider-Waite-Smith version depicts a young man sitting in a closed position under a tree. In front of him are 3 cups. The fourth cup is handed out by a hand that comes out of a cloud. Because the young man has his eyes closed, he does not see this.
There are many meanings, but the most common one is that one is so preoccupied with something he/she wants, that one does not see what is being given in front of him/her. Boredom (Eteilla), being spoiled or stubborn, dissatisfaction or aversion (Waite). In Crowley’s case, the card means ‘opulence’ or ‘pleasure’. Of course, there is a deeper symbolism underneath, which has to do with not being able to share emotions / not being able to open.

Tarotcard four of cups from the waite-smith deck

Tarotcard Four of Cups is a card that I always thought was a bit “out of place”. I never really thought about why I had that feeling. The meaning of the card was clear to me. However, something was always gnawing at me somewhere inside, but I never had the time or patience to investigate this. Cups aren’t really my suit anyway ;-). But the other day something happened that reminded me of this card. So I dived in and tried to look at the four of cups with a pair of ‘fresh eyes’.

The keywords and meanings that are generally assigned to this card are (among others):

Not wanting to see what you’re offered
Wanting something that isn’t available
Being dissatisfied
Acting Spoiled, ‘adolescent’ behaviour

Waite also mentions “Aversion” and “disgust.” Literally, he writes in ‘Pictorial Key’:

“A Young man is seated under a tree and contemplates three cups set on the grass before him; An arm issuing from a loud offers him another up. His expression notwithstanding is one discontent with his envronment. Divinatory meanings: Weariness, disgust, aversion, imaginary vexations, as if the wine of this world had caused satiety only; another wine, as if a fairy gift, is now offered the wastrel, but he sees no consolation therein. This is also a card of blended pleasure. Reversed: Novelty, presage, new instruction, new relations”
A.E. Waite – The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1911)

What does Waite mean by “blended” pleasure? Does he mean that you have too much of something that makes you ‘fed up’? The inverted meaning – which I never see as ‘reversed’ but more as the other end of the spectrum – doesn’t seem to make any sense to me.