The Three of Cups

Symbolism

There are three women raising their cups in celebration. They represent the feminine celebration of our creative subconscious. They show us the creative power of people uniting with one pure passion.

They are dressed in red and white robes, showing their pure passion and joy. The white-robed figure holds the highest cup, showing the importance of purity. 

There is abundance all around them with fruit and harvest showing the power of manifestation that is possible with this feminine creativity and joyful celebration. 

Keywords

Upright:  Joy, celebration, love, abundance, harmony, success, empathy, happiness, partnership, inspiration, feminine sharing, reunion, collaboration.

Reversed:  Fear of Joy, distrust, emotional block, antisocial, bitchiness and envy, gossip, excessive pleasure, independence.

Upright meaning

This Three shows our connection to our high vibrational emotions and the feminine joy that flows when we came together in celebration. The creativity of three is much more powerful than that of one, and this card speaks about the potential abundance that is created when several people come together with the same passion and purity. 

There is a familiarity and safety in the creative sharing of the three figures. They bring gifts of empathy, love and compassion to the table and no one tries to be better or more special. These three show us how we can put our ego to one side and celebrate each other’s gifts. This dynamic of co-creation brings integrity, flow and harmony into any interaction.

There is a passion in this card, and we are called to find it. When we live our life with excitement about the work that we do and enthusiasm towards our relationships, we will attract high vibrational people and experiences. The world is always mirroring us and this joyful mirror reflects beauty to the world.

This card also reflects a relationship with ourselves. The joy seen in the card speaks about our inner joy and pleasure for life. We often feel selfish choosing to put our own pleasure first and here we are asked to do so. If we cannot love and feel joy on our own, then we will find it hard to share that love with the world. This may mean pleasuring yourself sexually, treating yourself to a massage, or dancing alone to your favourite music. It is all important.

Reversed meaning

This reversal comes along when we have an old program that blocks our capacity for joy and having fun. Maybe there is a childhood trauma around celebration being unsafe, either shown to us by the excessive partying of our parents or their intolerance to us being wildly feminine and enjoying life. We may have been punished for having ‘too much’ fun. This shadow Three calls for our awareness of these programs.

We may have a program that blocks our joy and success, telling us it is wrong to be abundant. This comes with the belief that, “abundance is for greedy people”, or “nothing worth having comes easy”. We may be so stuck in our ‘hard work’, that we forget to have fun. 

Pessimism is part of this reversal, and it is a contagious emotion. If we are stuck in negative self-talk, and we are bringing others down with our moods, we need to ask ourselves, “how do I want to fell?”. And practice feeling the emotion that answers that question. How we feel is not just a conditioning but also a choice. Time to fake it till you make it. 

 

It is a good time to surrender our fears of letting go to joy and to love. Practice letting your hair down if you find it hard to, but also rein in on the celebration if you are partying too hard. This card calls for a balance of the extremes. You deserve happiness in all areas of your life and be aware of any program that tells you otherwise. Also, this reversal speaks about maybe taking time to make a private celebration with yourself over distracting yourself with others.