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.
Three of Cups
Merriment, Fulfilment and Solace
Waite's 1911 reversed Three of Cups includes expedition, dispatch and achievement: its reversed list is not confined to gossip, exclusion or failed friendship.
A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1911 edition), Part III, section 2, Three of Cups.
Three women in garlands raise their cups together in a garden among ripe fruit.
More context
Waite describes maidens raising cups in a garden as though pledging one another. He reads the card as a matter concluding in plenty, perfection and merriment. Happy outcome, victory, fulfilment, solace and healing are among his meanings. Reversed, he records expedition, dispatch, achievement and an end. The card also signifies excess in physical enjoyment and sensory pleasures. He does not interpret the three vessels as mind, body and spirit, or argue that solitary pleasure is categorically different from the same pleasure shared.
Light
Waite gives a happy outcome, victory, fulfilment, solace and healing within a scene of merriment.
Shadow
Waite also gives excess in physical enjoyment and the pleasures of the senses.