Upright

• Perhaps not a genuine thing; perhaps just pleasantry for pleasantry's sake.
• Acts done with the intention of giving rise to a certain mood in the self or in others, usually a pleasant mood.
• Efforts made to preserve a certain mood.
• An emotional vestige which cannot be sustained forever.
• Trying to feign normalcy or happiness when mysterious or troubling emotions arise.

The Six of Cups is double-Water elemental, from the number six and the suit of cups. Water is the most personal of the elements and yet this double-Water card is oriented upright, indicating more concrete or objective matters. Is something amiss here?

The Six of Cups could represent a welcoming atmosphere, where people do their best to make newcomers feel welcome, and to make all present feel safe and cheerful. This is something of an engineered mood, common at parties and other social events, and presented by service workers at places like restaurants. It's something which can put people at ease and help them to enjoy themselves.

However, this card could also represent pleasantry for pleasantry's sake, where people try to maintain such a mood to the exclusion of other moods. This could represent the proverbial negative peace, favoring the appearance of happiness to genuine emotion. (Hence the possibility that something is amiss.)

Abstract

(Reversed)

• Absence of troublesome emotions.
• A feeling of intense intimacy.
• Falling in love.
• Feeling spiritually connected.
• Being overcome by bliss or joy.
• Enjoying something without caring about consequences.
• Losing oneself in enjoyment and forgetting about other commitments.

The Abstract Six of Cups is double-Water elemental, and signifies very powerful positive emotions. Intense spiritual rapture, falling deeply in love, trusting or devoting oneself to someone or something are all potentially represented by this card. This is affinity without abandon, and it can be dangerous for the fact that it can dull one's critical thinking capacity.

While it is tempting to associate this card solely with love of other people, it could also represent being so enraptured by a show, or a place, or an activity that one forgets their other commitments, or ceases to care whether the people around them are having a good time or are becoming annoyed with them. The intense enjoyment of any work of art — literary, cinematic, interactive, etc. — may blind a person to its flaws, which may be harmful if they condone fear or hatred of oppressed groups, for example.

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