MINOR ARCANA

Nine of Cups Tarot Meanings

The Nine of Cups is the mature wisdom of our emotional and spiritual selves. Since walking away from the things that we identified as no longer serving us, we’ve been gifted with the divine knowledge and feeling of contentedness and only comes with awareness and experience.

This is also why the Nine of Cups often represents our wishes being fulfilled because we’ve recognised what we truly need to be happy and we’ve taken action in order to manifest it for ourselves.

Nine of Cups Tarot Meanings Wish Fulfilment

Nine of Cups Upright Meanings

In the upright position, the Nine of Cups tells us to enjoy all that we’ve built for ourselves and how much we’ve become accustomed to our own authenticity. It also tells you to remain open to the flow of life, don’t hide away now you’ve achieved what you set out to achieve. Some of the key meanings of the Nine of Cups are:

Pride
Fulfillment
Wishes granted
Abundance
Emotional intelligence

Being proud of yourself but staying humble is a skill and it is one we don’t always master right away. Although the Nine of Cups shows us we have a lot to be thankful for, it also warns us to not allow our emotions to run away with us and turn pride into arrogance.

Nine of Cups Reversed Meanings

In the reversed position, the Nine of Cups takes all those warm fuzzy, feelgood feelings we get in the upright position and turns them on their heads. The reversed shows that we’ve gone too far, we’ve not shown emotional control and now we are faced with an inner world in overdrive. Some of the main reversed meanings of the Nine of Cups are:

Unhappiness
Underachieving
Arrogance
Shattered dreams
Negativity

The Nine of Cups reversed can sometimes mean that things haven’t quite lived up to our expectations. If we’ve been working hard on something or wishing for something to come true, we may find ourselves disappointed and feeling dejected.

Reading Nine of Cups in a Tarot Spread

Generally speaking, the Nine of Cups, when it appears in a spread, is a good sign. It contains a lot of joy, specifically within the internal world. It’s worth starting to think about if there’s anything you or your client should be especially proud of, if something has been manifested that you’ve been working on for a while, or if you have received recognition for your accomplishments.

The image on the Rider Waite-Smith deck is one that is really helpful for determining initial reactions, as the smile on the face of the figure as he sits in front of his trophies says it all. There is something to be proud of, something worth shouting about and you have permission to tell the world.

Nine of Cups as An Invitation

As an invitation the Nine of Cups often invites us to take a look at what we should be grateful for, to give ourselves the recognition we deserve and be proud of ourselves for how far we’ve come on our inner journey.

For Nine of Cups, this invitation could be the following:

An invitation to think about everything you’ve managed to achieve and how you feel about it
An invitation to think about what you want to achieve long term
An invitation to dream big and not be afraid to tell people what you want most
An invitation to assess unhappiness and see if it could be caused by a lack mindset

Nine of Cups as Sage Advice

When it comes to the advice that the Nine of Cups has to offer, we are given guidance about emotional intelligence and self-recognition. Being able to recognise our emotions and show compassion towards them is something a lot of people struggle with and the Nine of Cups is the best card to go to in order to figure out how to navigate this block.

Some advice Nine of Cups may offer is:

Think about your big goals and consider how achievable they are in your set time frame. Could you break them down to become more manageable and ensure success?
Pride is not a bad thing to feel but allowing pride to inflate the ego to an unmanageable size will cause issues
If we haven’t had our wishes fulfilled yet it may not be time for them to come to us, or there may be something better coming in that we hadn’t considered

Nine of Cups as a Lesson

The Nine of Cups teaches us a lot about the fairness of life. We may not always get what we want and the Nine of Cups challenges us to think about how we react when those situations arise.

Some lessons that Nine of Cups may offer you are:

A lesson in accepting when things don’t go our way
A lesson in manifestation and bringing our hearts desires to us
A lesson in recognising our own achievements and how to accept success with humility
A lesson in emotional intelligence and staying connected with how we feel, especially when emotions are running high

Nine of Cups as a Redirection

If the Nine of Cups is coming to you as a redirection, then it may be time to focus on your abundance instead of your lack. We attract what we focus on, so if we are stuck dwelling on not achieving what we wanted, we may never achieve it or find something better.

As a redirection, Nine of Cups could symbolise a need to:

Look around and find abundance in even the smallest of spaces
Find a new dream or find the next dream. Always be aiming for something, no matter how small
Rethink how you would know that you have fulfilled what you set out to do. Is there an end you’re aiming for or are you putting yourself on a never-ending treadmill of achievement?
If you’re consistently underachieving take a pause and think about why that may be. Do you really want to achieve this thing or are you doing it because you feel you should want to achieve it?

Cups

The Cups are the Tarot suit that refer to our emotional, intuitive and compassionate selves. When they appear in a spread we know to instinctively to look towards our heart space and what is happening there.

Within the Nine of Cups, we have an abundance of that cups energy. We are surrounded by cups, each one adding value to our lives in some significant way. Each one perfectly filled and ready to be used.

Water

The Tarot cups correspond to elemental water. This water energy is what helps the emotional and intuitive energies of the cups to flow in a healthy and unobstructed way.

The cups share their meanings and properties with the element of water as this element is a nurturing life source. We need it to live, we need it for the world to continue to be fertile and keep providing for us. In many ways, water energy is very passive and so are the cups.

Nines

The number nine in numerology refers to abundance and wish fulfilment. It is the last single digit number before we enter into double digits, often marking the end of something or the final hurdle before completion.

The number nine within the Cups refers to an abundance of emotion, intuition, compassion or empathy. It is the feeling of being loved, of loving and being content with what you have achieved.