Two 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 Two of Cups card.
Side by side
Choose any two decks and read the pictures against each other.
Pamela Colman Smith, 1909
A young man and woman face each other and raise their cups in a pledge. Above them rises the caduceus of Hermes, two serpents twined around a winged staff, crowned with a lion's head. The exchange is formal and equal: neither reaches further than the other.
Lequart, Paris, 19th century
Two yellow goblets stand on either side of a green stem with a red flower. Above, the stem holds a red bloom in a small cup between two blue-green fish heads. Below, a green panel shows a crowned shield with three fleurs-de-lis flanked by grotesque masks and foliage. Numeral II on each side.
Marseille number cards are read through their number and suit; the written meaning here gives the scene the Rider-Waite-Smith card adds.
Rider–Waite–Smith
Pamela Colman Smith, 1909
A young man and woman face each other and raise their cups in a pledge. Above them rises the caduceus of Hermes, two serpents twined around a winged staff, crowned with a lion's head. The exchange is formal and equal: neither reaches further than the other.
Tarot de Marseille
Lequart, Paris, 19th century
Two yellow goblets stand on either side of a green stem with a red flower. Above, the stem holds a red bloom in a small cup between two blue-green fish heads. Below, a green panel shows a crowned shield with three fleurs-de-lis flanked by grotesque masks and foliage. Numeral II on each side.
Marseille number cards are read through their number and suit; the written meaning here gives the scene the Rider-Waite-Smith card adds.
Tarot de Viéville
Jacques Viéville, c. 1650
Two cups stand side by side under a third, smaller cup set on a red stem between two grey dolphin-like heads. Below them, five lines of capitals begin LA LVNE LESTOILLE and end AV DYABLE; the words FOVDRE and PENDV appear among them.
Viéville number cards show only their suit symbols; read them through number and suit, with the written meaning as a guide.
Visconti-Sforza
Bonifacio Bembo, c. 1450
Two gold goblets with blue bands and green tops stand one above the other on the cream ground. Between them a curled gold and white ribbon bears the words 'amor myo' in green letters. Green leaves and blue and red flowers climb the sides within a red border.
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 tall stack of ornate cups and vases rises on scrolled feet, with handles curling at the sides. In the topmost bowl a winged infant plays a stringed instrument with a bow. The small numeral 2 is at the lower right.
Soimoi
Mike Koz, 2025
A man and a woman, both in red kimonos with their hair tied back, kneel facing each other on a raked gravel garden and raise small white cups toward one another. Two white cranes fly overhead. Bamboo, a lit stone lantern and the roof of a small shrine fill the dusky background, and red petals drift down.