Ace of Cups Tarot Card Meaning

A cup overflows with five streams as a dove descends. The Ace of Cups is love and emotional renewal — an open heart, compassion and a fresh beginning in feeling.

• Suit:Cups — Water
• Keywords:love, compassion, new feelings, intuition
• Reversed:emotional block, self-neglect, emptiness
• Yes or no:Yes

What the card shows

A hand emerges from a cloud holding a golden cup. Five streams of water pour from it into a pond of lotus flowers, and a white dove descends with a wafer in its beak.

The cup gives more than it can hold.

Upright meaning

Upright, the Ace of Cups brings new love, deep feelings, creativity and spiritual openness. It can mark a new relationship, reconciliation, a birth or simply a heart that is ready to feel again.

Reversed meaning

Reversed, emotions are blocked or poured out without being refilled. Care for yourself before giving more.

In love and relationships

In love it is one of the best cards: new romance, deepening affection or a proposal.

In work and money

At work, it favours creative and caring professions and work that feels meaningful. With money, emotional satisfaction matters as much as profit.

As advice

Open your heart and let yourself receive as well as give.

In Marseille and Thoth

In the Tarot de Marseille the Ace of Cups is an ornate cup like a cathedral or fountain. In the Thoth deck it is the Root of the Powers of Water, a cup of light held by a lotus.

Questions to reflect on

• What does my heart want to receive?
• Where can I be more compassionate, including with myself?
• What feeling is ready to be expressed?

Frequently asked questions