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Ten of Cups
The Ten of Cups is the completion of the suit of Cups: feeling that has found its home. It is often read as harmony in a family or close circle, a settled and loving relationship, or the deep contentment of belonging somewhere with people one cares about.
The image
A couple stand with their arms around each other, raising their free arms toward a rainbow of ten cups in the sky. Beside them two children dance. Ahead lie a river, green fields and a small house. The rainbow is usually taken as blessing and promise; the dancing children and the house as joy lived in an ordinary, everyday setting.
Upright
Contentment, harmony and lasting love. Waite calls it "repose of the entire heart" and the perfection of human love and friendship. The card can point to family happiness, a home that feels right, reconciliation, or a sense that what truly matters is in place.
Reversed
Waite reads the reversal as sorrow, a serious quarrel, and "repose of the false heart". Modern readers often see tension at home, a picture of happiness that hides strain, or values in a family that no longer match. Some readers do not use reversals.
Correspondences
The Ten of the suit of Cups, element water. The Golden Dawn, whose attributions most English-language decks follow, calls it the Lord of Perfected Success and gives it Mars in the third decan of Pisces, 20°–30°. On the Tree of Life it sits in Malkuth, the tenth sephirah.
In a reading
As an outcome, it is usually read as the happiest result the suit can give. As advice, it invites investing in the people closest to you. In the past, it can describe a secure foundation. Beside the Ten of Pentacles it emphasises family and home.
In astrology
The Golden Dawn's correspondences, which most English-language decks follow (French, Marseille-based tradition differs for some Major Arcana).
Decan: Mars in Pisces, 20°–30°
Element: Water — the element of Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces
Mode: Mutable — Pisces is a mutable sign