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Page of Cups
The Page of Cups is the youngest figure of the suit of Cups: open-hearted, imaginative and a little surprising. It can describe a person — often young, or young at heart — who is sensitive, playful and intuitive, or a situation in which a feeling or an idea is just beginning to show itself. Traditionally the Pages are also messengers, so this card is often read as gentle or affectionate news.
The image
A young man in a tunic patterned with flowers stands by the sea, holding up a cup. A small fish rises out of it and looks back at him, and he studies it with calm interest. Waite calls it "the pictures of the mind taking form". The fish is usually taken as an unexpected thought or feeling surfacing from the unconscious; the sea behind as the depth it comes from.
Upright
Imagination, sensitivity and new feeling. Waite gives a studious youth, "news, message", and "reflection, meditation". Modern readers add an invitation to romance, a creative impulse, an intuitive hunch worth trusting, or a willingness to be moved. The card tends to favour curiosity over caution.
Reversed
Waite's reversed list runs from "taste, inclination, attachment" to "seduction, deception, artifice". Modern readers often see emotional immaturity, moodiness, an idea that stays a daydream, or a message that goes astray. Some readers do not use reversals.
Correspondences
A court card of the suit of Cups, element water. In the Golden Dawn system, which most English-language decks follow, the RWS Page corresponds to the Princess — here the Princess of the Waters — and her elemental pairing is Earth of Water: feeling given its first concrete form. The Golden Dawn gives the Princesses no single decan.
In a reading
As a person, it can describe someone gentle and imaginative. In the advice position, it suggests listening to a quiet feeling or trying something creative. As an outcome, it is often read as a pleasant surprise or message. Beside the Ace of Cups it strongly suggests an emotional new start.
In astrology
The Golden Dawn's correspondences, which most English-language decks follow (French, Marseille-based tradition differs for some Major Arcana).
Element: Water — the element of Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces