Six of Cups Tarot Meaning: Upright and Reversed

What does the 6th of Cups mean upright and reversed? We explore its symbolism, interpretation in love and career, and what it reveals about feelings, advice, and yes-or-no answers. 

Six of Cups Keywords Upright and Reversed 

• Upright: Reunions, nostalgia for the past, sentimentality, reliving your childhood, the age of innocence. 
• Reversed: Baggage from the past, lack of perspective, naivety, self-delusion. 

Six of Cups Description and Symbolism 

The Six of Cups tarot card depicts six cups filled with flowers, each of which is made up of five points. A boy is smelling one flower and offering a cup of flowers to another child. The smaller child symbolises the past, and the taller child symbolises the future. Together, they symbolise a happy reunion with friends or lovers from the past, or visiting places that hold special memories. 

There is a sense of rekindling the treasures of the past and appreciating people that have shaped our lives. However, in the background, there is another figure who appears older and is walking away. This is powerful, as it symbolises the worries of the past leaving. Behind them is what appears to be a house or chapel, which indicates security and solace in a difficult situation. The difficult situation is depicted by the barren garden, which suggests that something has been lost. 

The card is mainly yellow, which suggests an optimistic overtone that something of value from the past can be recaptured and can provide solace and inspiration in the present. 

Upright Six of Cups Meaning 

There is a youthful energy attached to this card. What it suggests is that you escape the responsibilities, weariness, and cynicism of adult life in order to remember happier times. For many of us, childhood was a halcyon phase of happy memories, endless sunny days, fun opportunities, and optimism. Sometimes it can be helpful to briefly reminisce about those happy times and draw inspiration or solace from them. 

This tarot card can represent nostalgia or regret about a phase of life that belongs to the past and cannot be recaptured. This is often an indication you will attend a school reunion, a family reunion, or visit a place that was once special for you, to remember better days or to escape into these beautiful memories rather than dealing with current challenges.

While walking down memory lane can be pleasurable and even indulgent, if it becomes too habitual you may find yourself living in the past and idealising it rather than understanding the opportunities and challenges, both positive and negative, of the present time. 

Love Meaning Upright Six of Cups 

As this tarot card is connected to the past, you may reconnect with a lover from your childhood or from your past, but you should know that the relationship this time will be very different. Even if you are in a relationship, this may mean an ex or an idealised former partner reappearing in your life and perhaps creating doubt about your current relationship. 

Although there are happy memories connected to the past relationship, it does not necessarily mean you are suited for each other now. You must accept that you have moved on, you are different people, and sometimes what is in the past belongs in the past and should not be revisited. 

This card can also suggest that the passion and excitement in your current relationship has faded and that you may be missing the honeymoon phase. However, relationships evolve, and while long-term partnerships may lack the excitement they once had, they offer comfort, security, and nurturing. 

The message is not to allow idealism about the past to distract you from the potential your current relationship holds. Comparing the present to the past can lead to unrealistic expectations and feelings of inadequacy. 

Career Meaning Upright Six of Cups 

This is a reassuring card if you are looking for a job. It suggests you may find something comfortable, familiar, or perhaps reconnect with people you worked with in the past. There is also encouragement for creative endeavours and hobbies outside of work that are emotionally fulfilling. 

This tarot card can also indicate scrapbooking, writing memoirs, compiling photo albums, or researching your genealogy and family tree as a way of connecting with your ancestral history. 

Health Meaning Upright Six of Cups 

This suggests that the root of your health problems or psychological issues may lie in childhood or the past. It may also indicate hereditary conditions worth researching.

In some cases, hypnotherapy or past-life regression could be useful in addressing anxiety, sleep disorders, or insomnia so that you can achieve greater relaxation and healing. 

Spiritual Meaning Upright Six of Cups 

This is a cue to connect with your inner child. Engage in activities that make you feel youthful or that you once enjoyed but no longer make time for. Cultivating your inner child encourages healing, spontaneity, and self-expression, increasing positivity and emotional wellbeing. 

Feelings or Actions Related to the Upright Six of Cups 

This is a playful, cheerful, and optimistic card. It represents reminiscing, nostalgia, reconnecting with family, attending reunions, or revisiting the past. It highlights the benefits of appreciating the childhood experiences that shaped you. 

However, it may also be important to acknowledge darker aspects of your past and how they may have contributed to current psychological or health issues. 

During periods of chaos or uncertainty, looking back can offer reassurance, but it is vital not to get lost there. Reflect on how far you have come, everything you have overcome, and allow that awareness to inspire confidence in your future. 

Reversed Six of Cups Meaning 

When this tarot card is reversed, it indicates that you are clinging on to the past in a way that is stopping you from fully exploring your future. You may be stuck idealising the past or thinking that nothing can ever be as good as the past, which can be a mistake and can prevent you from seeing opportunities right now. 

Reversed Six of Cups is also an indication that you may not have fully worked through or resolved incidents from your childhood, and these are resulting in emotional blocks right now, so these issues are important to explore. 

You should fearlessly delve into your past to see things in reality and reframe them as part of your personal growth. You should not live in the past, but you should not neglect its impact on you in the present. It is also important to break out of mindsets that really belong in the past but which prohibit your progress in the present. 

Love Meaning Reversed Six of Cups

This may suggest that you are glamorising a previous relationship or idealising a previous partner, and that is stopping you from properly evaluating relationships that you are having right now. It may also mean a reassessment of the relationship. Perhaps you had a goal of being married and having children by a certain age, but now you realise that perhaps that does not really suit you. 

This may also suggest a time when you experience once again the excitement that comes with new love and that makes you feel younger again. Conversely, perhaps you need to do activities that you used to enjoy and that made you feel alive but that you stopped doing because life got hectic as these activities may be exactly the ones that could bring you into contact with a suitable partner. 

Career Meaning Reversed Six of Cups 

Reversed Six of Cups often means that you have to re-evaluate your career direction. Perhaps the goals or targets you set yourself were unrealistic and maybe even a little bit naive, and you now have to think more clearly about what is achievable and realign yourself accordingly. 

There is also an indication that you have placed trust or faith in the wrong people and they have not come through for you as either clients, employers, or employees. Strip away the illusion, seek clearly who can further your career and who cannot, and make decisions in that light. 

Health Meaning Reversed Six of Cups 

In a health reading, this can indicate difficulty in getting pregnant. This may not be the right time for you to get pregnant, start a family, or extend a family. It may also point out that you are suffering health issues connected to a relationship with your children. Perhaps your children are really stressing you out, are very demanding, and very hard to discipline, and they are wearing you out. 

It may also indicate that you have small children and are finding being a parent extremely gruelling or demanding. It is important that you do not beat yourself up, being a parent is hard work. 

Spiritual Meaning Reversed Six of Cups 

This card often indicates that you are coming to terms with difficult memories from childhood or perhaps trying to address situations from your childhood that caused you harm and have had a lasting impact.

On a positive note, it can also mean that you are discovering a new career or vocation where you help people who are going through similar issues. Perhaps you are helping people overcome issues of abuse in their childhood, or you are helping children who are currently suffering abuse. This can be very favourable for your own spiritual development. 

Feelings or Actions Related to the Reversed Six of Cups 

This tarot card shows that your past is in focus. Baggage from your past could be holding you back. However, it also indicates that you may be a little bit naive about what your past truly represents, and it is important to once again revisit and clearly evaluate what happened in your past, the effect of it on you today, and how you can release it. 

It is essential that you do not over-idealise people or situations from the past so that you are always comparing the present to an impossible ideal and therefore holding yourself back. This card encourages realism in addressing thought patterns and habits that have been going on for a long time and which really have to be put aside so that your life can progress. 

Past, Present and Future Positions for Six of Cups

Past

This may refer to a time of innocence, emotional safety, or meaningful connections that shaped your values and emotional experiences. Past relationships, family dynamics, or memories of “halcyon days” may still be colouring how you view situations now. It can also indicate that unresolved childhood themes are still echoing into the present. 

Present

You are currently looking backward for comfort, reassurance, or clarity. You may be reconnecting with people from your past, revisiting old places, or reflecting deeply on memories. This can be healing and grounding, especially during uncertain times, but it can also signal emotional indulgence or idealisation. The card asks you to appreciate the past without becoming stuck in it. 

Future

The Six of Cups points to reunions, healing, and a return to something meaningful. This could involve reconnecting with a person, rediscovering a passion you once loved, or finding peace through resolving old emotional patterns. It often suggests a softer, more emotionally secure phase ahead, where the lessons of the past are integrated in a healthy way. 

Six of Cups — YES or NO Answers 

Upright: YES 

The Six of Cups upright is generally a YES, especially when the question involves love, reconciliation, emotional resolution, or reconnecting with the past. If you’re asking about someone returning, rebuilding trust, or whether something has genuine emotional value, this card leans toward a gentle but clear yes. 

Reversed: NO (or NOT yet) 

The answer leans towards NO, or at least not in the way you’re hoping. It suggests being stuck in the past, unrealistic nostalgia, or emotional baggage that needs to be released before progress can happen. If the question involves rekindling an old relationship or repeating a past pattern, the reversed card warns that doing so may block healthier opportunities. 

Advice and Message of the Six of Cups 

The message of this tarot card is to understand the influence of the past upon you. In many cases, it represents revisiting the past physically through going to places and reconnecting with old friends, or perhaps it is more of a mental journey through scrapbooking, looking at old photos, or even writing a story about your family history. 

It suggests this process can be very therapeutic as you reconnect with your past so that you can better understand how it shaped you and brought you to where you are today. However, the card does not encourage lingering in the past to the extent that nostalgia makes the present fade into insignificance. The past should be a tool of self-development and growth, not a crutch that keeps you stuck by providing solace but not calling you to action. 

Summary 

This card is a prompt to rediscover the child within you. You can do this by connecting with childhood memories and reconnecting with friends and special places. This suggests that you may need a break from the stresses and strains of adult life, and that doing activities that brought joy in childhood can provide light-hearted relief from adult struggles. 

This is a perfect time to enjoy the things you once enjoyed: meeting old friends, travelling to past places, or even talking to your children about your childhood and the experiences you had. However, the card does not encourage wallowing in the past as a way of permanently escaping responsibility. Your visit to the past should be like a pleasurable vacation, after which you return to the present with renewed perspective and understanding of your journey. 

You should revisit the past to enjoy the bright moments, but also acknowledge any dark clouds from the past that have followed you into the present, and banish them once and for all.