Page of Cups

  • Arcana Minor
  • Suit Cups
  • Figure on this site The young skald
Historical evidence

In the earliest decks

The suit of Cups (Italian coppe) belongs to the Latin suit system, which Wikipedia says came from cards imported from Mamluk Egypt and Moorish Granada in the 1370s. Tarot is Italian in origin: the Metropolitan Museum places the earliest references in the 1440s and 1450s, around Venice, Milan, Florence and Urbino.

The Morgan Library describes a complete early pack as 78 cards, each suit made of ten number cards and four picture cards: a page, a knight, a queen and a king. The Page is therefore the lowest of the four court ranks. In English-language writing on the Sola Busca deck (engraved about 1490) the same rank is called the Knave. That deck names its Knights, Queens and Kings but gives no personal names for the Knaves.

Historical evidence

The Rider-Waite-Smith card

Pamela Colman Smith drew the Rider-Waite-Smith deck around 1909 for A. E. Waite, and its Minor Arcana are fully illustrated. Her Page of Cups shows a young figure looking at a fish that rises out of a cup. Waite describes the page as fair and somewhat effeminate, a studious and intent youth.

Some scholars suggest Smith took inspiration from the illustrated Sola Busca deck, which the British Museum received photographs of in 1907. Wikipedia gives only pip cards as examples, so this should not be assumed for the court cards.

Myth and literature · Quotation

Waite’s description

A fair, pleasing, somewhat effeminate page, of studious and intent aspect, contemplates a fish rising from a cup to look at him. It is the pictures of the mind taking form.

Modern interpretation

As read on this site

This is the meaning used for readings here. Using the tarot to divine is a modern practice, and the Norse figure shown for each card is this site’s own association; the tarot began as an Italian card game. A short history is on the Tarot page.

Upright

Keywords: sincere expression, emotional honesty, unpolished feeling, genuine voice

The young skald speaks feeling before it's fully understood, sincere even when raw, and there's something genuinely valuable in that lack of polish. Emotional honesty doesn't require eloquence. If you have something true to say, say it plainly, even imperfectly; the sincerity carries more than the phrasing does.

In general: Expressing something honestly, even imperfectly, matters more right now than expressing it perfectly.

In love: Sharing a feeling plainly and sincerely, even if it comes out clumsy, rather than waiting until you can phrase it perfectly.

In work: Offering honest, if unpolished, feedback or enthusiasm rather than holding back until it's eloquent.

Reversed

Keywords: empty sentimentality, feeling without follow-through, unmatched words and action, performative emotion

Sentimentality without follow-through offers feeling as a substitute for action — warm words that never quite turn into anything sustained. If the expression here is bigger than the commitment behind it, that gap is worth closing, either by following through or by tempering the words to match what's actually being offered.

In general: Expressed feeling isn't being matched by sustained action. The gap between the two is becoming noticeable.

In love: Saying the romantic thing without doing the steady, unglamorous things that would actually back it up.

In work: Expressing enthusiasm for an idea or person without any actual follow-through to support it.

Unsure whether this card represents a person or an approach? Read our guide to tarot court cards.

Draw a card for a reading · How to read cards together · Reversed cards

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