Six of Cups

My Six of Cups sparks feelings of nostalgia — of memories from long ago, from childhood perhaps. The danger here is in looking back through rose-tinted glasses, remembering an idealised version of events rather than the full truth of them.

With regards to looking forward, the image on this card warns about building castles in the air. Though daydreaming can draw your dreams into current reality, you must be disciplined enough to distinguish between a vision worth pursuing and a fantasy being used as an escape from the present.

The Six of Cups also speaks to the genuine comfort of the familiar — a person, a place, a feeling from the past returning and offering real nourishment. Old friends, childhood connections, creative work that reconnects you with your earliest passions — all are within this card's territory. Not everything from the past is to be left behind.

Reversed, the Six of Cups suggests you are stuck — either literally living in the past, or comparing your present so unfavourably to an idealised memory that genuine progress is impossible. What was may have been wonderful. It was also not perfect, and it cannot be returned to. The reversed Six asks you to honour the past and then leave it where it belongs.

In love the Six of Cups can indicate a past love returning, or a relationship that has a quality of deep familiarity — feeling as though you have known each other before. It can also point to someone carrying the patterns or wounds of a past relationship into a new one without fully realising it. Look honestly at whether you are responding to who is in front of you now, or to a ghost from the past.

In career the Six of Cups can indicate returning to a field or type of work that you were once passionate about, or reconnecting with a creative project you set aside. Old colleagues or mentors may re-enter the picture. It can also point to nostalgia for a previous role getting in the way of full engagement with the present one.