The Page of Cups reversed may make you place your head in your hands, wondering what sort of personal problems this card indicates. Keep your chin up there; this card can indicate that relationships, creativity, and emotions may go off in a different direction than you anticipated, but you always have the chance to meet the situation head on. The Page of Cups reversed is a signal for you to pay attention to emotional and creative matters instead of assuming it will all go a certain way.
Cups and Cups Reversed
We’re back in the Cups suit, so emotions and feelings rule the day. For a reversed Cups card, though, the emotions can be stifled or held in — there’s a muting of the emotion or feeling that affects not only how you deal with the situation externally but also how you feel internally. It’s possible to be externally reserved but internally caught up in the flow of love (think of all those crushes you had in which you couldn’t let on that you liked someone). But a reversed Cups card indicates that, internally, there’s a blockage that’s not letting the emotions flow.
Pages and Pages Reversed
Pages can represent children, regardless of gender, as well as young women. They could occasionally be young men, depending on the question, but they’re more typically a young woman, child, or teen.
The Pages also indicate initiation, approach, connection, and discovery — not in an experimental sense but in terms of finding new things for or about yourself or something else. The Page is like the Fool of each court card series; the Fool doesn’t mean foolish but innocent and starting anew. Pages are friendly cards in general.
Pages reversed are not necessarily unfriendly, but they can indicate opposition, competition, and restrictions. There’s something that isn’t letting that initial connection take place as smoothly as it should. One of the problems with reversed cards is that they’re automatically seen as negative aspects, and they can be, but occasionally, they just note things. That restriction could be a characteristic that you need to watch but not fear, such as an extrovert dealing with an introvert. They simply need to be aware of how the other person relates.
Put Them Together
The Page of Cups reversed, then, shows either a young person or an emotional situation that has gone or has the potential to go off the rails, compared to what you’re hoping for. For example, you’re going off on a semester abroad and want to know what your classmates and people in general will be like. The Page of Cups reversed shows up in a position dealing with outcomes or how other people see the situation. You could be looking at indications that:
- People in the other country will not be so friendly, or you’ll find it hard to make friends
- People in the other country will be friendly but have such a different way of building friendships that your interactions will be so awkward until you figure out what’s going on
- The dating culture or cultural expectations of how different genders interact are so different from yours that you risk major misunderstandings
- It might not be you, but your home culture might not be seen in the highest regard, which could affect your daily dealings with people (for example: dealing with low-level anti-Americanism)
- A young woman, teen, or child could create an issue, be it competition, resentment, incompatibility as housemates, and more
Because the Page of Cups can be a child or teen, if you’re a parent who is about to make a move that affects your children, it’s possible that there could be an aspect of the situation that your child will have to deal with that could affect you. Maybe your child will have to deal with bullying, or maybe he or she will not adjust well, so while everyone around you is supportive, your child could have a tough time. Or it could just be that you might have to put up with your child suddenly having so many new friends that it seems like there’s never any peace at your home — that’s not a bad thing overall, but it can be for a tired parent!
The Page of Cups typically isn’t a pregnancy card — the Empress has that covered — but given that the Page of Cups can represent a child, and the reversed card can indicate something not going the way you thought it would, it would make sense to be very careful regarding pregnancy, either preventing it or ensuring that you get proper care. Again, that’s simply because of the child connection.
This card can also represent a situation that, in its present form, won’t be so fulfilling — but now that you know about it, you can do something about it and turn the situation around. For example, if you’re that student abroad? Now you can research how people deal with each other in the new country so that you’re better prepared, as well as be more reserved in your approaches until you’re more sure of daily etiquette.
One more issue that the Page of Cups can represent is creativity. You’re starting a new job and want to know what future opportunities are like? That Page of Cups reversed could mean the positions you get won’t be that creative. You just got a part in a play? Maybe there will be differences that you have to bridge, such as everyone else in the play using a different acting style and you have to adjust.
Keep in mind that when you have a reading done, the reading is about how things look considering the course you’re on. You can change things; if you want your future jobs to offer more creative opportunities, keep an eye out for those aspects, or finetune your job searches over the years to redirect yourself into more creative fields. Never, ever assume you’re stuck on a path that the cards lay out.
Of course, any card’s meaning depends on the cards around it and the particular spread you’re using. If you’ve got a burning question, get a tarot card reading online and see what the entire situation looks like. It could be that the Page of Cups reversed is the key to making the outcome much happier than you anticipated.
