Six of Cups

Minor Arcana · Cups · number 6 · Sei di Coppe

Six of Cups, plate by Pamela Colman Smith
Pamela Colman Smith, 1910

Upright

The Six of Cups is a childhood garden: two children, flowers in the cups, an old house. It is the card of memories, of happiness that comes from the past, of vanished things that still warm you. If these days you find yourself thinking back to an old love, a place, a person no longer here, it is no accident: something in you needs that sweetness. Waite also gives the other reading, new relations, new surroundings, like children in an unfamiliar courtyard. The practical advice: use nostalgia as a compass, not as a hiding place. Call whoever you miss, but plant a new flower too.

Source: Arthur Edward Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910) · read the original passage
«A card of the past and of memories, looking back, as—for example—on childhood; happiness, enjoyment, but coming rather from the past; things that have vanished. Another reading reverses this, giving new relations, new knowledge, new environment, and then the children are disporting in an unfamiliar precinct.»

Reversed

Reversed, the Six of Cups looks ahead: the future, renewal, what is about to happen. Memories give way to what is coming, and quickly. If these days you feel the past has stopped pulling you back, that one chapter is closed and another is knocking, it is no accident. In love it may be a new person sweeping away a memory; at work, an imminent change asking you to be ready. The practical advice: prepare the ground now. Sort out your papers, update your CV, free up space at home and in your diary. What is coming will not wait for you to finish remembering.

Source: Arthur Edward Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910) · read the original passage
«The future, renewal, that which will come to pass presently.»

Source

Arthur Edward Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910) Part III, § 2, The Lesser Arcana, Six of Cups https://archive.org/details/a.-e.-waite-the-pictorial-key-to-the-tarot