The Ten of Cups

Symbolism

Here is the simple image of ten cups inside a rainbow of joy. The rainbow is the light mixed with the water element and shows the effect of shining a light on the full range of emotions.

Below the rainbow, a family is standing in an idyllic countryside setting. A couple is stretching out their arms in celebration and two children are playing together full of the joy of life.

The sunny countryside with a beautiful home, and a river running by represents a complete sense of wellbeing and fulfilment.

Keywords

Upright:  Happiness, love, joy, harmony, satisfaction, abundance, family, awe, wonder, fun and games, marriage and long relationships. 

Reversed:  Resistance to joy, fearing love, broken family trauma, separation, disharmony, fear, isolation, misaligned values.

Upright meaning

The Ten of Cups show completion in the suit of emotions. We have allowed all feelings to flow through us. We feel safe with all the range of emotions that we are capable of. We have done the work to parent ourselves well and keep ourselves safe. This allows the childlike joy and carefree happiness to also flow again in our lives. This card celebrates saying yes to our sensitivity and Love.

The suit of cups is naturally receptive and for us to receive all ten cups, we have to be highly open and willing to receive. This means that we feel strong enough to say yes to our full range of watery truths. We must have embraced the darker feelings and uplifting emotions equally. This openness means that our communication to our body is intimate and loving. It accompanies a feeling of gratitude and acceptance.

With our clear, inner communication, it is easy to be sincere with ourselves and honest towards the world. We naturally know what we want and we are not afraid of sharing our truth. When we no longer fear our feelings, we lose the fear of emotionally sharing with others. This quality is attractive and will invite like-minded souls into our life for beautiful interactions.

The sensitivity and empathy of the Cups are also expressed fully when this Ten comes up. As we feel safe with ourselves, we allow our emotional and astral bodies to expand outwards. We can sense and feel the environment around us and we feel deeply connected to the world. We will become more psychic by being open to life emotional vibrations. 

Our practise of loving ourselves has allowed us to love the world with open-hearted celebration. 

Reversed meaning

The shadow of the Tens talks about resistance to this feeling of completion. There isn’t a complete rejection of all of our cups and the whole emotional suit but there is a resistance towards fulfilment. This Ten represents surrender to love and complete happiness. Maybe past trauma has made us doubt this possibility or maybe we don’t believe it is for us. Maybe we lack boundaries to help us feel safe and open up.

If there is something that we judge about ourselves; something we don’t like, we will reject who we are and create inner conflict. This Ten is asking us to love ourselves completely and when we don’t, we will find that the outer world may also judge us in the same way. We will easily blame our intimate partners for not loving us and be resentful. But this is our job, not someone else’s.

 

While it is up to us to find love for ourselves, we may need help to embrace this tenth cup that seems bigger than the rest. Deserving the highest form of joy is not an easy truth to believe in and asking for help is not weakness, but strength. The secret to the tenth cup will often be found in ancestral patterns and traumas. There is a strong family theme for this card.

This reversal may also be showing how the family dynamic is clouding our happiness. Running away from what triggers us is never the answer to healing our inner traumas, but sometimes a little space is important to gain objective clarity. When a family dynamic is intensely bringing up our inner pain and fears, we can take time out to come back to a place of love and hope once again.