Minor Arcana, Cups
Two of Cups
partnership, affection, balance, friendship
Upright
Two people face each other and exchange cups, while a winged lion's head rises above a staff between them. Waite lists love, friendship, affinity, union and sympathy, a meeting of equals.
This card can apply to a romance, a close friend or a business partner. Each person gives and each receives. If you are weighing a commitment, ask whether the exchange feels even, and say aloud what you hope the other will bring.
Reversed
Waite gives no reversed meaning here, so read the exchange as blocked. One cup may be held back, or the giving has become lopsided, with one person doing most of the reaching.
Overdone, the bond can turn into needing each other for everything. In a strained friendship or relationship, name one thing that has gone unsaid and one thing you would like to change. Then listen to the answer.
A card is a prompt for reflection. It cannot promise a result, and it is no substitute for medical, legal or financial advice.
In Waite's words
Upright: Love, passion, friendship, affinity, union, concord, sympathy, the interrelation of the sexes, and—as a suggestion apart from all offices of divination—that desire which is not in Nature, but by which Nature is sanctified.
Reversed: Waite gives no reversed meaning for this card.
From A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910), Part 3, on Wikisource. The meanings above are by Cast & Chart.
Card art by Pamela Colman Smith, 1909, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.