Two of Cups
Minor Arcana · Cups · number 2 · Due di Coppe
Upright
The Two of Cups is the meeting: love, passion, friendship, affinity, two people exchanging the cup and recognising each other. If these days you have met someone, or rediscovered an understanding with the person beside you, it is no accident: this is the card of a union that does both of you good. It applies beyond love as well: a partner, a colleague, a friendship born at work that holds. The card also speaks of union, concord, sympathy, the interrelation of the sexes; and Waite, almost in the margin, apart from all offices of divination, speaks of a desire that is not just nature, but something that makes nature sacred. The practical advice: nurture this bond with concrete gestures, an invitation, real listening, a promise kept.
Source: Arthur Edward Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910) · read the original passage
Reversed
Waite gives no reversed meaning for the Two of Cups in his main list, but among the additional meanings he offers a single word: passion. In the same note, for the upright card, he calls it favourable in things of pleasure and business as well as love, bringing wealth and honour: the ground of the card stays good, even upside down. The bond remains, but it grows hotter, more impatient, sometimes blinder. If these days a feeling overwhelms you, or a partnership turns into a tug of war, it is no accident: the cup is overflowing. Be careful not to mistake intensity for depth, nor to make life decisions, moving in together, a joint investment, on the crest of an emotion. It is not a sentence. The practical advice: enjoy the fire, but wait a month before signing anything together.