Nine of Cups

What the card means

Upright

It is called the wish card and that is nearly fair: it is about the moment after the thing asked for has been given. The contentment in it is bodily and honest - fed, settled, pleased with itself, and seeing no reason to hide any of that. There is exactly one doubt in the card: whether the wish was yours.

Reversed

You got it, and it turned out smaller than it had been in your head. Sometimes because the wish was not yours to begin with; sometimes because nothing granted is ever the shape imagination gave it. And sometimes it is simpler than that: contentment has become complacency and is in the way of looking further.

Love and relationships

Upright

A relationship that is simply good - no drama, and no questions being asked of it. Mutual, easy, enjoyed. For anyone single it is a stretch of being content alone, and not as a posture.

Reversed

Everything asked for is there and something still is not. Or a partner who is admired rather than lived with. Sometimes a wish granted too late to be any use.

Work and business

Upright

The work returns what it was done for: recognition, money, quiet. A good moment to stop and notice that, instead of running at the next thing. Requests and proposals are likelier to be granted than not.

Reversed

You got there and are not glad. Or you are resting on something finished a year ago while the next thing is being made beside you.

Money

Upright

Sufficiency you can feel. Not wealth - a position in which you can afford things. A good time for the purchase that has been put off.

Reversed

Spending on what was supposed to please you, and being unmoved. Or deciding you have earned it more often than you earn it.

The card's advice

Say what you want - plainly, and without making it smaller. And check that the wish is yours: the card grants what was asked for, not what was meant.

As the card of the day

A day on which things are likelier to work than not. Good for asking, buying, inviting and allowing yourself something. The only care needed is not to mistake “I am comfortable” for “this is enough”.

What is depicted

A man sits in front of a curved table with nine cups set out on it; his arms are folded and he looks pleased. The table is under a cloth and what is beneath it cannot be seen. The cups are behind him: they are not being used, they are being displayed.

Zodiac sign and correspondences

Jupiter in Pisces - generosity that does not ask whether it can afford itself.

With other cards

• Nine of Cups + Three of Cups — your own contentment and the shared kind: an occasion you want somebody to be there for.
• Nine of Cups + Nine of Pentacles — sufficiency in feeling and in circumstance at once - a rare pairing in which nothing has to be chosen between.
• Nine of Cups + Seven of Swords — it was not come by entirely honestly, and knowing that spoils the pleasure.