Page of Cups in 6 decks
The same card as 6 decks draw it, five and a half centuries apart. What stays the same is the card’s core; what changes is where a reading can find something new. The meanings are written for the Rider–Waite–Smith picture; the descriptions here are of each deck’s own. Not in Oswald Wirth, which has no Page of Cups card.
Side by side
Choose any two decks and read the pictures against each other.
Pamela Colman Smith, 1909
A young page in a flowered tunic and a soft blue hat stands on the shore holding a cup, out of which a small fish looks back at him. He regards the fish with calm curiosity rather than alarm. Behind him the sea moves in gentle waves.
Lequart, Paris, 19th century
A young man with yellow curls and a wreath of small flowers walks to the right, holding a tall yellow cup in one hand and a round red and grey lid in the other. He wears a striped tunic of blue, yellow and white, a peach scarf, and one red and one yellow stocking. A small figure 3 shows at lower left. Titled VALET DE COUPE.
Rider–Waite–Smith
Pamela Colman Smith, 1909
A young page in a flowered tunic and a soft blue hat stands on the shore holding a cup, out of which a small fish looks back at him. He regards the fish with calm curiosity rather than alarm. Behind him the sea moves in gentle waves.
Tarot de Marseille
Lequart, Paris, 19th century
A young man with yellow curls and a wreath of small flowers walks to the right, holding a tall yellow cup in one hand and a round red and grey lid in the other. He wears a striped tunic of blue, yellow and white, a peach scarf, and one red and one yellow stocking. A small figure 3 shows at lower left. Titled VALET DE COUPE.
Tarot de Viéville
Jacques Viéville, c. 1650
A young man in a red and black cap walks to the left, holding up a large patterned goblet in his left hand. He wears a yellow cape over a red tunic, red hose and black shoes, and a short gilt object rests at his right hip.
Visconti-Sforza
Bonifacio Bembo, c. 1450
A fair-haired youth in profile, facing left, holds up a tall lidded gold cup on his right palm; the cup is so faint it nearly merges with the tooled ground. He wears a dark gold tunic with purple sleeves and hem, one pale leg and one red. Paint has flaked from his clothes and from the green hills and grass below.
In the Visconti-Sforza deck the number cards show only their suit symbols, and the trumps are unnamed and unnumbered.
Sola Busca
c. 1491
A young man with a green wreath, red tunic, blue sleeves and blue and green hose raises his hands before a lidded vessel on a purple column, from which spikes or flames rise. A white cloth hangs over his arm and a red cloak with a dark tassel falls behind. The numeral 11 is at the right.
Soimoi
Mike Koz, 2025
A young man with a topknot, in a dark blue kimono, kneels on the grass at night holding a dark bowl in both hands, eyes closed. A small glowing blue fish rises out of the bowl on a curl of luminous mist. A white rabbit sits beside him, and cherry blossom, bamboo, pines and a small red torii surround the scene.