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4 of Cups

The 4 of Cups Minor Arcana Tarot card is traditionally considered one of boredom and apathy, of not being content with what we have. However, more modernly, this dissatisfaction can point to a deeper underlying cause.

Why aren’t the things currently available to us emotionally satisfying? As the suit of emotions, it is only right that we accept what is emotionally gratifying to us, when given the choice.

Read on for more Four of Cups card meanings, including its Tarot card description with Astrological and Numerological correspondences, what it means reversed and in a career, love, and general reading:

Four of Cups Meaning

The Four of Cups is often described as a moody, sulky card, one in which we don’t appreciate what we have, or are throwing out the baby with the bathwater.

However, when the Four of Cups appears for me I stop and pause to take stock: why am I feeling discontent and blah about something? If nothing is currently up to my standards, then that’s OK. It may not feel totally pleasant but there is value in acknowledging that!

Following on from the lovely Three of Cups, sometimes this card reminds of the social hangover or weekend-comedown, the pity party after the afterparty. We experienced such simple bliss and belonging, and now we are left alone to contemplate our values and what matters to us most.

Like with all the Tarot cards, what the actual signification is will depend on you and the current situation. Perhaps it is a call to question how you have been living your life or what you have been placing importance on. Those shiny cups may not satiate anymore.

The figure in the Pamela Colman Smith Tarot deck is sitting contemplatively (or sulkily) under a tree, sometimes likened to Buddha under the Bodhi tree, next to four cups. Here we are questioning what it is we want to accept and what we have the capacity to hold.

Sometimes the figure is reprimanded for not being aware that a magical hand is offering them a fourth cup from a cloud, like we are closed off and blinded to missed opportunities. But I imagine if I were sitting under a tree and a floating cup was offered to me, I would notice it! They simply may not be interested in more of the same, they already have three cups in front of them.

Maybe there’s a reason you’re bored by everything around you… as we will discover in the next card, one of the three cups might have been poisoned.

In the Thoth Tarot deck, whereas the Three of Cups were made of natural abundance (grapes?) and overflowing back into the waters below, here in the four we start to see some of the rotting; the sky behind is a gloomy grey and only the top two cups are over flowing into the two below, which no longer overflow.

It is interstingly called Luxury, which I liken to the luxury of choice. When we are in survival mode we don’t have the luxury of choosing what we want and don’t want, we just need to do what needs to get done in order to survive. Here in the Four, we do have the luxury of choice, while it may not be pleasant to feel dissatisfied, it is still a privilege to be able to choose and acknowledge what we like and don’t like.

Numerologically as a 4 it refers to structure, stability, and stagnancy. Sometimes when things have been safe and secure for a long time, we crave the 5 of change. The four also correlates it to material reality (Four Seasons, Four Elements, Four Cardinal Directions etc.), although as the suit of cups it does also speak to the emotions, relationships, and immaterial.

Whereas in the Four of Swords are called for a mental truce and quietening of the mind, here we may need an emotional break to detach from it all. The Four of Wands shows us stability in our energy— here the water may have become stagnant. The Four of Pentacles, more similarly, can represent a fixity.

This connects it to the Major Arcana Emperor card, the archetype of order and structure. The Emperor is solid and unwavering, assured in their power. Connecting to the Four of Cups, it can be used as a reminder to seek the balance between safety and stagnancy.

Astrologically, it is a Moon is Cancer card, where it is domiciled. The Moon in Cancer is highly in touch with its emotions, body, and gut instinct. It ebbs and flows with the tides of its feeling, nurturing and nourishing as need be. I love this Astrological correspondence because it is a reminder that we, too, go through phases, and that sometimes we just don’t feel like something and that’s OK. Listen to what the heart and body want.

Four of Cups Upright Tarot Card Meanings

Generally, an upright Four of Cups can represent boredom, apathy, and dissatisfaction traditionally; as well as a reevaluation of our values, honouring of our needs and desires, being with the lull periods, not accepting what is in front of us based on our gut instinct, and accepting our shifting moods.

Four of Cups Reversed Meaning

The Four of Cups reversed indicates a pushing through of dissatisfaction, like trying to make a square peg fit in a round hole. A reversed Four can represent not listening to the needs, wants, and desires of heart and body, or a resistance to accepting that something is not standing up to your values.

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Four of Cups in Love Tarot Readings

As with any Tarot meanings, the significations of the Four of Cups in a love Tarot reading will depend on the situation at hand, the question asked, the position in the spread it has fallen in, the cards surrounding it, and your own intuition.

Overall, the Four of Cups here can represent a sense of dissatisfaction, bored, or apathy in the relationship itself or the current period. It can also symbolise a need for time alone to reevaluate your values and sit in quiet contemplation with yourself. Either way, something may not be living up to standards, find out what it is!

Four of Cups in a Career Reading

Again, the nature of its meaning will depend on the context, but in general the Four of Cups career meaning can represent a dissatisfaction with your current job role, a sense of deflation in the company, or a lack of job satisfaction. It is an invitation to sit with yourself and asses what your professional values are and what is not aligning emotionally for you. Sometimes new opportunities arise from an emotional shift.

So those are some Four of Cups Tarot card meanings, I hope it’s insightful for you! Let me know in the comments section below if you have anything else to add or any questions.

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