Illustration by Pamela Colman Smith, 1910. Public domain in the US since 1966 and in the UK since 2021. Vector digitisation of the Rider–Waite–Smith deck by OpenClipart contributor "klaatu-tarot", released public domain.
Four of Cups
Contemplation and Apathy
Waite's 1911 reversed meanings include novelty, new instruction and new relations: his list allows fresh connections within a card often reduced to apathy.
A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1911 edition), part III, section 2, Four of Cups, reversed meanings.
A man sits beneath a tree; three cups stand before him and a hand from a cloud offers a fourth.
More context
Waite describes a young man contemplating three cups beneath a tree while an arm from a cloud offers another. His expression shows discontent. Waite's meanings include weariness, disgust, aversion and imaginary vexations, as though the world's wine has produced satiety. The offered cup resembles another wine, a fairy gift in which the man finds no consolation. The reversed meanings are novelty, a sign of something coming, new instruction and new relations. This is not Waite's account of a man who simply fails to register the offer.
Light
Waite's reversed meanings include novelty, new instruction and new relations.
Shadow
Waite names weariness, disgust, aversion and imaginary vexations; the offered gift brings the seated man no consolation.