Ace of Cups

What the card means

Upright

The heart opens without being asked to. A hand from a cloud holds a cup running over - five streams, more than it holds. The beginning of a feeling that has neither a name nor an address yet, and is no less real for it.

Reversed

Feeling held back until it curdles. Nothing let in and nothing let out - both equally tiring. Sometimes simply the wrong moment: the cup is full and there is nobody to share it with.

Love and relationships

Upright

A new feeling, falling for somebody, making up. The best card in the deck for a question about a beginning - it promises no continuation and says the beginning is real.

Reversed

Keeping the feeling to yourself until it sours. Or refusing what is offered because taking it is frightening.

Work and business

Upright

Something taken up with the heart. Making things, an idea you like yourself. Work that has a point in it again.

Reversed

Doing it with no relation to it at all. Or an idea too precious to show.

Money

Upright

A pleasant, unearned piece of luck: a gift, help, an offer. Small and well timed.

Reversed

Not taking what is offered, out of pride.

The card's advice

Let it be. Do not establish how it ends and do not trim it in advance - the cup runs over, and that is its ordinary condition rather than waste.

As the card of the day

A soft, full day. Good for saying something kind and for accepting something kind. Poor for calculation.

What is depicted

A hand from a cloud holds a cup with five streams pouring from it; above, a dove lowers a wafer into it. A lily pond below. The cup is overflowing from the start - it was not filled, it is like that.

Zodiac sign and correspondences

Water in the raw - what moves you.

With other cards

• Ace of Cups + Page of Cups — the feeling arrived and found words.
• Ace of Cups + Two of Cups — the feeling found somebody to be addressed to.
• Ace of Cups + Three of Swords — opened up and got the truth; painful and honest.