Four of Cups: tarot card meaning

In A. E. Waite's Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910), the Four of Cups upright means: 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.

The picture

“A young man is seated under a tree and contemplates three cups set on the grass before him; an arm issuing from a cloud offers him another cup. His expression notwithstanding is one of discontent with his environment.” A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, 1910

Upright

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.

Waite's additional meanings: Contrarieties.

Reversed

Novelty, presage, new instruction, new relations.

Waite's additional meanings, reversed: Presentiment.

In one line

Weariness, while a new gift is held out unnoticed. (Esbat's own summary of Waite's meaning and picture.)

Where it sits in the deck

The Four of Cups is the fourth card of the suit of Cups, one of the 56 Minor Arcana. The other Fours: Four of Wands, Four of Swords, Four 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 Four 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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