Western Tarot symbolism
Ace of Cups
The prose describes a hand holding a cup above water-lilies, with streams pouring from it and a bird bearing a cross-marked Host toward the cup. The main meanings join nourishment and abundance with the Holy Table. The supplementary list instead assigns inflexible will and unalterable law upright, with an unexpected change of position reversed. The main reversed account concerns instability and mutation.
Loading your archive…
In the sources
The card account
LiteraryThe prose describes a hand holding a cup above water-lilies, with streams pouring from it and a bird bearing a cross-marked Host toward the cup. The main meanings join nourishment and abundance with the Holy Table.
Comparing the lists
LiteraryThe supplementary list instead assigns inflexible will and unalterable law upright, with an unexpected change of position reversed. The main reversed account concerns instability and mutation.
Context & interpretation
The active library scan carries L. W. de Laurence’s name and reproduces material associated with A. E. Waite’s Tarot exposition. This entry follows that supplied edition’s card prose and supplementary lists. Historical divinatory assignments and period character labels are distinguished from the pictured symbolism and from independently supported judgements about people or future events.
Original passages
Source 1
The Illustrated Key to the Tarot: The Veil of Divination
The waters are beneath, and thereon are water-lilies ; the hand issues from the cloud, holding in its palm the cup, from which four streams areOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: The Illustrated Key to the Tarot, supplied de Laurence edition; card description, active reader leaf 119
Exact supplied-edition extracted passage actually read; whitespace-normalised quotation anchor and original-leaf mapping checked. Image descriptions attributed to printed prose; no new full-plate visual inspection asserted.
- Edition
- IMJ-0149-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0149-E001-P0119
- Original scan leaf
- 125
- Recorded leaf number
- 125
- Current Reader position
- 119
- Reader verification
- Matches the reviewed Reader
Source 2
The Illustrated Key to the Tarot: The Veil of Divination
Ace.—Inflexible will, unalterable law. Reversed: Unexpected change of position. Swords. King.—A lawyer, senator, doctor. Reversed: A bad man ; also a caution to put an endOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: The Illustrated Key to the Tarot, supplied de Laurence edition; additional meanings, active reader leaf 151
Exact supplied-edition extracted passage actually read; whitespace-normalised quotation anchor and original-leaf mapping checked. Image descriptions attributed to printed prose; no new full-plate visual inspection asserted.
- Edition
- IMJ-0149-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0149-E001-P0151
- Original scan leaf
- 157
- Recorded leaf number
- 157
- Current Reader position
- 151
- Reader verification
- Matches the reviewed Reader
Illustrations
Continue exploring
Eight of Cups
A departing figure gives the Eight an image of leaving an earlier concern behind.
Shared source pageEight of Swords
A bound figure surrounded by swords is expressly described as temporarily confined.
Shared source pageFive of Cups
Three fallen cups and two remaining upright make loss and remainder part of one composition.
Shared source pageFive of Swords
A figure controlling the field watches two others retreat while their swords remain on the ground.