Two of Cups Tarot Card Meaning

Two of Cups upright

A youth and a maiden face each other, each holding a cup, as if exchanging a pledge; above them rises a winged staff with two serpents and a lion's head. Waite lists love, passion, friendship, affinity, union, concord and sympathy. A connection is mutual — say so.

Two of Cups reversed

Waite lists no reversed meaning for this card. Readers who use reversals take it as the same bond strained: one side giving more, or a misunderstanding that needs a calm talk.

A reversed card (What does Upright / reversed card mean?) is one drawn upside-down.

Is Two of Cups a yes or no?

Upright: Leans yes. Yes — especially to anything shared with another person.

Reversed: Reversed, Two of Cups reads as mixed — not a clear yes or no: imbalance, misunderstanding, a cooling bond.

The yes/no lean is BornClock’s reading convention drawn from the card’s meaning — Waite himself did not assign one.

Symbolism in the Two of Cups card

What appears in the 1909 Rider–Waite–Smith picture, as Waite describes it:

• Youth and maiden exchanging cups — a pledge between equals
• Winged staff with two serpents (caduceus) — Waite: the caduceus of Hermes
• Lion's head between the wings — Waite: a variant of a sign found on a few old cards

In Waite’s own words (paraphrased)

Upright: love, passion, friendship, affinity, union, concord, sympathy.

Reversed: Waite gives no reversed meaning for this card.

Source: A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910, public domain). Some of Waite’s 1910 fortune-telling meanings are old-fashioned; the plain-English reading above is ours.