Memories and Nostalgia: Meditations on the Six of Cups

The six of cups is a card about nostalgia and the safety and pleasure in memories. It focuses particularly on memories of childhood…

Jamie Toth, The Somewhat Cyclops

24 Jun 2020 • 3 min read

Yes, this seems much more fitting to my childhood. Source: Author, Deck Barbara Walker Tarot Deck, US Games.

The six of cups is a card about nostalgia and the safety and pleasure in memories. It focuses particularly on memories of childhood. Oftentimes in readings it can also indicate an old flame of the past turning up, or it indicates a general return to ways or things from the past. It can be a card of remembered, small joys as well as safety and security.

By Authorship: [Arthur Edward Waite], Pamela Coleman Smith was the artist and worked as an artist ‘for hire.’ Waite was the copyright holder and he died in 1942. — This image scanned by Holly Voley, PD-US, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=35262354

In the original imagery of the Rider-Waite-Smith deck, the main figures are of two children sniffing a small, white, five pointed flower growing from a cup. A simple joy from a simple time — and this card is often about returning to innocence and simpler thoughts.

The six of cups is a tricky card for me to conceptualize because I had a pretty awful childhood, and this is the card of happy childhood memories. This sense of nostalgia in the six of cups card didn’t particularly make a whole bunch of sense to me until I saw Barbara Walker’s version of the card.

In Barbara Walker’s tarot, the six of cups is a psychic reaction to the regret and pain pictures in the five of cups — it is a regression into childhood and a return to the giantess Mother. When I saw this image, it helped me come to peace with and understand the original Rider Waite Smith card much better. It indicates that the card isn’t just about innocence, but about the return to that mental space. It’s not just about childhood — it’s about the return to that mindset (for good or ill, depending on all the other factors in your reading).

The six of cups isn’t just about the nostalgia of childhood — it’s the psychic return to the state of being a child.

Whether it’s to help you enjoy smelling the roses, or to bring you back to an earlier thought pattern, the six of cups indicates that you are giving in to nostalgia. When coupled with the two of pentacles, it serves as a warning that you might be making some pretty poor spending decisions based on that nostalgia. Watch closely how this card interacts with the energies of other cards, especially when reversed. When paired with court cards from the cups, it can indicate a growth from child (6 of cups) to teenage (page, princess) to adulthood (queen, king).

In reverse this card indicates being far too taken in by nostalgia and the return to earlier patterns to think clearly. It indicates you’re clinging to the past and not moving forward or truly growing. You’re spending too much time in your memories instead of creating new ones. Instead of the memories lifting you up or teaching you a different, renewed mindset, the return to childhood when reversed holds you back.

In the Zombie Deck, All of the elements of the reversed and upright six of cups come into play. Source: Author. Deck: Zombie Tarot by Paul Kepple

When meditating on the six of cups I find the imagery in the Zombie Tarot to be helpful. While it’s great to have your childhood memories, beware if you hold them too close. They are not what they were — they can never be again.