The 78 Cards
Three of Cups
Minor Arcana, the suit of Cups, the Three. Element: water.
Friendship, celebration, and the people who show up.
The picture
Three women stand close together in a garden and raise their cups high over their heads, as though they are dancing or making a toast. One wears a long red robe and has her back to us. One wears white, and one wears an orange gown with a bunch of grapes in her lowered hand. At their feet the ground is covered in fruit, with grapes on the vine and a large pumpkin.
Upright
Three is growth, creativity and the first result. In Cups, the feeling that began with one person has spread out into a circle.
This is the card of friendship and community. Birthdays, weddings, reunions, the dinner that runs three hours longer than planned. It is also the card of the friends who arrive when something good happens, and who are just as quick to arrive when something goes wrong.
Look at the ground. The harvest is in. These three are celebrating something that has already grown, so the Three of Cups often turns up when there is a result worth marking. A project finished, a recovery, a milestone. The card says: stop and share it.
Nobody in this picture is celebrating alone. Joy grows when it is passed around the circle.
Reversed
Reversed, I read this card as too much or too little.
Too much is the party that never ends. Overindulgence, gossip, a social life that fills every night and leaves nothing for you. Too little is the circle that has drifted apart, the friends you meant to call, the feeling of being left outside the dance while everyone else raises a cup.
To tell which, notice how you feel the morning after time with your people. If you come away full, the circle is doing its job. If you come away empty or tired, there is too much going on. If there was no time with your people to feel anything about, the circle needs tending.
When it turns up
Who are the people you would call first with good news, and when did you last tell them so?
If you would like the cards read against your own chart, my readings are here.
Related pages
The Number 3
The 78 Cards
Every card in the deck, upright and reversed.
See every page and post in the Contents.
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