Eight of Cups: tarot card meaning

In A. E. Waite's Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910), the Eight of Cups upright means: The card speaks for itself on the surface, but other readings are entirely antithetical, giving joy, mildness, timidity, honour, modesty. In practice, it is usually found that the card shews the decline of a matter, or that a matter which has been thought to be important is really of slight consequence, either for good or evil. Reversed: Great joy, happiness, feasting.

The picture

“A man of dejected aspect is deserting the cups of his felicity, enterprise, undertaking or previous concern.” A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, 1910

Upright

The card speaks for itself on the surface, but other readings are entirely antithetical, giving joy, mildness, timidity, honour, modesty. In practice, it is usually found that the card shews the decline of a matter, or that a matter which has been thought to be important is really of slight consequence, either for good or evil.

Waite's additional meanings: Marriage with a fair woman.

Reversed

Great joy, happiness, feasting.

Waite's additional meanings, reversed: Perfect satisfaction.

In one line

Walking away from what once made you glad. (Esbat's own summary of Waite's meaning and picture.)

Where it sits in the deck

The Eight of Cups is the eighth card of the suit of Cups, one of the 56 Minor Arcana. The other Eights: Eight of Wands, Eight of Swords, Eight of Pentacles.

In Esbat

Esbat deals a card of the day, face down until you turn it, and holds all 78 cards in the 1910 pictures with Waite's meanings, upright and reversed. The Eight of Cups can be shared as a picture. All 78 tarot card meanings.

Sources

Meanings and picture descriptions: A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (London: Rider, 1910), public domain, checked against the Wikisource transcription. Picture: Pamela Colman Smith, 1910, public domain. Like the app, this page records what the book says; it does not promise outcomes.

Last updated October 25, 2026.

Esbat: Tarot & Book of Shadows, on Google Play

A card of the day, face down until you turn it, and all 78 cards in the 1910 pictures with Waite's meanings, upright and reversed. For Android.

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