The Four of Cups as Intentions: To Do Nothing, for Now

Written by Chaya the Medium.

The Four of Cups as intentions is the absence of a plan. Here is what I would read in it, upright and reversed, and why that is not the same as rejection.

If you want the short answer, I would read the Four of Cups as intentions that are absent. In an intentions position the card suggests the person does not currently intend anything toward you, not from dislike but from distraction, flatness or withdrawal. They are looking at their own three cups. The fourth, which may be you, is being offered and is not being looked at.

This is the figure with folded arms under the tree. They intend to sit there. That is the whole of the plan, and it is not about you.

The Four of Cups upright as intentions

Tina Gong's the Four of Cups guide at Labyrinthos associates the upright card with apathy, contemplation, disconnection and reevaluation. When the card lands in a position that asks what someone intends toward you, I read those meanings as the shape of their plan rather than as a promise about what they will do. Feelings and intentions are different questions; the Four of Cups as feelings covers the first, and this page covers the second. The general card meanings at Biddy Tarot are a useful second reference.

Upright, I read the Four of Cups as a person with no active intention toward you: not planning to pursue, not planning to leave, not planning. They are preoccupied with their own disappointment or their own thoughts. Whatever they feel for you is sitting beside them unexamined, and no plan comes from an unexamined feeling.

What I would not read into it is a plan to reject you. The folded arms are folded against the world. You are in the world, and that is the only sense in which you are being refused.

What the card does not tell you

The card does not confirm the person will look up, what they will intend when they do, or that their withdrawal has anything to do with you. No card lets a reader see another person's plans. What a card can do is describe the kind of intention that fits the person's behaviour, and give you something to check against what they actually do.

The Four of Cups reversed as intentions

Reversed, the Four of Cups as intentions describes the head turning: a person starting to notice you, to intend something, to reach for the cup they had ignored. Some readers read the reversal as deeper withdrawal, and if the person's flatness has become something heavier, that may fit better.

In your own question, ask whether the person has recently shown interest they did not before, or whether their withdrawal has deepened into something that worries you. A reversed card as intentions is a prompt to compare what is said with what is done, not a diagnosis of bad faith.

The Four of Cups as an ex's intentions

Asked about an ex, the Four of Cups as intentions says they are not thinking about you much and intend nothing, in either direction. That is not the answer people want and it is a clean one. Nothing is planned because nothing is being looked at. My guide to asking a psychic whether an ex will come back explains what a reading can and cannot say about that question.

The Four of Cups as a new person's intentions

For someone new, this card describes someone who is not emotionally available to intend anything right now. Patience sometimes works. Being quietly present, like the cup from the cloud, sometimes works. Demanding a plan does not.

What their intentions look like in action

Look for distraction rather than avoidance: flat with everyone, bored by their own life, absent rather than unkind. A Four of Cups intention looks like no intention. If they are animated with everyone but you, that is a different card.

What to record before drawing again

Keep three short notes: the question you asked, what seems to be occupying the person instead of you, and whether you are willing to wait for them to look up. The third note is the honest one.

For comparison, the Five of Cups as intentions and the Eight of Cups as intentions describe different intentions. The the Four of Cups card meaning page covers the card in full, and the Four of Cups as timing and the Four of Cups as a yes or no cover the other questions people most often ask of it. For a personal interpretation, my guide to a love psychic reading online explains how I work, and the three-card tarot listing and customer reviews are worth reading before deciding whether to order.