The Open Athenaeum

✶ The Study Deck

Nine of Cups

Cups, of the lesser arcana

Waite & Colman Smith, 1909 · described 1911

A goodly personage has feasted to his heart's content, and abundant refreshment of wine is on the arched counter behind him, seeming to indicate that the future is also assured. The picture offers the material side only, but there are other aspects.

the plate, in waite's words · the painted card will hang here in time

In divination

Concord, contentment, physical bien-être; also victory, success, advantage; satisfaction for the Querent or person for whom the consultation is made.

Reversed: Truth, loyalty, liberty; but the readings vary and include mistakes, imperfections, etc.

The library's note

A well-fed figure sits before an arched counter stocked with wine, the picture of satisfaction Waite admits shows "the material side only." Contentment, victory, and physical ease fill his compiled reading of it, though he is careful to flag that other aspects exist beyond what the design actually shows. Coming after the Eight's departure, the Nine answers with excess rather than restraint, cups' feeling here at its most simply, materially full before the Ten closes the suit on a different, quieter completion.

a young page · the keeper's voice pass on the note is still to come

Doors Onward

Sources & Further Reading

  1. Waite, A. E. (1911). The Pictorial Key to the Tarot. Card text quoted verbatim, his punctuation kept. (Public domain.)
  2. Card described at: http://sacred-texts.com/tarot/pkt/pktcu09.htm

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