Tarot card meanings › Cups
Eight of Cups Tarot Card Meaning
The Eight of Cups tarot card means walking away, searching and leaving something behind. Walking away to find more.
Upright
- Walking away
- searching
- leaving something behind
Reversed
- Fear of leaving
- drifting
- coming back
Yes or no
Maybe
The Eight of Cups is one of the 14 cards in the suit of Cups. Cups are the suit of water: feelings, love, friendship and intuition.
What the card shows
A figure in a red cloak, leaning on a staff, walks away into the hills from eight neatly stacked cups. An eclipsed moon looks down.
This is the card as drawn by Pamela Colman Smith for the 1909 Rider-Waite-Smith deck, which is in the public domain.
Upright meaning
The Eight of Cups is read as leaving something that looks fine and feels empty. Nothing is broken, but it is not enough any more. It points to a search for more meaning.
Eight of Cups reversed
Reversed, it is read as being afraid to leave, drifting without a direction, or going back to see if it can work.
Yes or no?
In a yes or no question, the Eight of Cups is usually read as a maybe: the answer depends on something not settled yet. Readers differ on some cards, so treat this as one common reading. You can ask a yes or no question and draw a card for it.
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More Cups cards
Ace of CupsTwo of CupsThree of CupsFour of CupsFive of CupsSix of CupsSeven of CupsNine of CupsTen of CupsPage of CupsKnight of CupsQueen of CupsKing of Cups
‹ Seven of CupsAll 78 cardsNine of Cups ›
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