The Six of Cups as Intentions: To Revisit the Past, and Possibly Stay There

Written by Chaya the Medium.

The Six of Cups as intentions is a plan to look back, which is not always a plan to come back. Here is what I would read in it, upright and reversed.

If you want the short answer, I would read the Six of Cups as intentions that are nostalgic and tender. In an intentions position the card suggests the person means to reconnect with something from the past: a memory, a feeling, a version of you, a time. The intention is warm. Whether it is a plan to rebuild or a plan to remember is the thing to find out, and the card does not say.

This is the child handing the cup of flowers to the smaller child in the old garden. They intend to give something from before. They may or may not intend to leave the garden.

The Six of Cups upright as intentions

Tina Gong's the Six of Cups guide at Labyrinthos associates the upright card with nostalgia, innocence, reunion and childhood memories. 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 Six 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 Six of Cups as a person whose intention toward you is rooted in what you shared: they mean to be kind, to reach out with warmth, to honour what was. It may be an intention to reconnect. It may be an intention to send a kind message and go back to their life. The warmth is real either way.

What I would not read into it is a plan for the future. The Six of Cups intends the past. Some reunions begin there. Most fond messages end there.

What the card does not tell you

The card does not confirm that the person intends anything beyond the gesture, that their fondness is for who you are now, or that they want to build rather than revisit. 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 Six of Cups reversed as intentions

Reversed, the Six of Cups as intentions describes a plan to live in the past rather than visit it: an intention to keep you as a memory, to idealise what was and avoid what is, or to use nostalgia about you to escape something in their present. It can also describe an old connection the person intends to revive and cannot, because the people in it have changed.

In your own question, ask whether the person is interested in who you are now, or only in who you were, and whether they reach for memories of you when their present is hard. A reversed card as intentions is a prompt to compare what is said with what is done, not a diagnosis of bad faith.

The Six of Cups as an ex's intentions

Asked about an ex, the Six of Cups as intentions is the card people most hope to see and the one I would read most carefully. It suggests a warm wish to reconnect with what was shared. It says nothing about whether they intend to try again, and the pull of the past is strongest in people who have decided not to return to it. My guide to asking a psychic whether an ex will come back explains what a reading can and cannot say about that question.

The Six of Cups as a new person's intentions

For someone new, this card can mean you remind them of something good and they intend to be close to that feeling. A tender beginning. Watch whether they come to intend you, rather than what you remind them of.

What their intentions look like in action

Look for reminiscence and gentle contact: a message about the past, a shared memory, softness about what was. A Six of Cups intention is visible in the looking back. Whether it includes a plan is visible only if they make one.

What to record before drawing again

Keep three short notes: the question you asked, what the person seems to want to revisit, and whether they have shown any intention about now rather than then. The third note separates nostalgia from a plan.

For comparison, the Five of Cups as intentions and the Three of Cups as intentions describe different intentions. The the Six of Cups card meaning page covers the card in full, and the Six of Cups as timing and the Six 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.