6 of Cups as Feelings: Ritual and Tarot Spread for Soul Mate Love

6 of cups as feelings - soul mates reaching for each other across time and space

The 6 of Cups as feelings in love and relationship Tarot readings, typically shows up when someone is reminiscing, idealising the past. Alternatively, they are longing for a reunion with someone they once shared a deep emotional bond with—possibly even from a past life. It is widely considered the soul mate card of the Minor Arcana, especially when it shows up in love readings where there’s a strong emotional or karmic pull. Upright, it suggests warm, innocent affection, nostalgia, and unconditional love. Reversed, it can hint at stagnation, unresolved childhood wounds, or unrealistic expectations.

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Six of Cups Angelic Love Tarot Ritual
Six of Cups-Inspired Tarot Spread

Let’s explore how this watery, sentimental card speaks through the lens of contemporary relationship psychology and what it reveals about the soul connections that shape us.

6 of Cups as Feelings of a Love Interest (Upright)

When the 6 of Cups appears upright in a love reading, your love interest is likely experiencing tender, perhaps even idealised, feelings toward you. They may see you as someone they’ve known before (this life or another) and associate you with warmth, familiarity, and emotional safety. There’s a desire to recreate or return to a feeling of innocence, trust, or mutual joy that existed in a previous encounter.

In terms of Sternberg’s Triangular Theory of Love, this card aligns most strongly with intimacy—emotional closeness without necessarily requiring passion or commitment (though these may follow). It indicates a heart connection where sharing and empathy come naturally.

Under Lee’s Six Styles of Loving, this often represents Storge, the friendship-based love that grows over time, founded on shared memories, loyalty, and emotional reliability.

This card might also suggest a willingness to invest emotionally over time. The person may not be ready to leap into passion, but they see value in the emotional groundwork already laid, possibly from a previous connection.

6 of Cups as Feelings when Reversed or Ill-dignified

In reversal, the card’s soft light turns bittersweet. Your love interest may be clinging to a romanticised version of the past, using nostalgia to avoid the complexities of the present. They might be idealising what once was, or projecting unmet childhood needs onto you. Emotional immaturity or co-dependence could also be in play.

The 6 of Cups may indicate longing for closeness but being afraid to experience it in the present moment. Alternatively, it could reveal that their emotional responses are shaped more by what they missed in their early bonds than by what’s truly being offered now.

It can also point to relationship dynamics where the cost outweighs the reward. Is your love interest staying emotionally stuck because of nostalgia or because they genuinely see a fulfilling future?

6 of Cups When Single and Looking

If you’re single and this card appears, it’s time to examine how the past is shaping your present romantic outlook. Are you carrying emotional baggage, or are you lovingly holding space for a soul connection that’s returning to you in divine timing?

It’s important to assess whether you’re projecting a fantasy where one partner gives more than the other—or unconsciously repeating an old relational script. The 6 of Cups reminds you that love built on mutual emotional giving is the only kind that stands the test of time.

6 of Cups As Your Attachment Style

You could have a secure to anxious-preoccupied attachment style. You want emotional closeness, shared memories, and consistent connection. You may even gravitate toward people who feel familiar or “like home,” which can be both healing and hazardous depending on the partner’s emotional capacity.

You are the kind of person who:

Needs reassurance that love doesn’t vanish with time
Values long-term emotional bonds
Relates to love as something sacred and karmic

As the Attachment Style of Your Love Interest

Your partner may appear securely attached on the surface, but this card suggests a powerful undercurrent of nostalgia or longing for an idealised emotional experience. If reversed, they might resist full presence due to inner child wounds, emotional avoidance, or fear of history repeating itself.

They may:

Seek familiarity and emotional safety
Retreat into the past to avoid present intimacy
Want a “storybook” feeling of love that feels destined

6 of Cups As the Energetic Connection

This connection feels like “home.” There’s a softness, a profound recognition, and a mutual yearning for emotional closeness. Your energies likely resonate on a high heart frequency and may trigger both comfort and a healing crisis. The 6 of Cups often reflects a karmic bond being revisited for resolution or blossoming, especially with Major Arcana cards like Judgement, The Moon, The Lovers or The World.

Shared dynamics might include:

Inner child healing through the mirror of each other
Rekindled love from a past relationship or lifetime
A sense of timing that feels orchestrated by something greater

6 of Cups as the Potential Outcome

If you’re wondering where the relationship is heading, the 6 of Cups suggests a return to heartfelt simplicity. Either a reunion or reconciliation is likely, or the emotional climate softens, allowing the relationship to grow from friendship into something deeper.

However, even emotionally rich relationships need time, trust, and energy investment to last. Warm feelings alone won’t carry a relationship without effort and mutual commitment.

6 of Cups in a Relationship Breakdown

Seen through the lens of Duck’s Phase Model of Relationship Breakdown, this card can emerge during the dyadic or grave-dressing phase. One or both parties are reflecting on the past and comparing it to the present, often clinging to the “good old days.” Reconciliation may be possible if both partners are willing to honour what once was while stepping into emotional maturity.

It’s crucial to ask:

Are we holding onto memories, or building something real?
Can the past inspire us rather than bind us?

Angelic Love Tarot Ritual: Reuniting with a Soul Mate

This gentle ritual calls on the power of the 6 of Cups and Archangel Gabriel to help you attract—or reconnect with—a soul mate from your past or past life.

You will need:

The 6 of Cups card
A white or pink candle
A quiet space
A journal or piece of paper

Steps:

Light the candle and place the 6 of Cups card before you.
Sit quietly, breathing into your heart space.
Visualise a golden thread stretching from your heart to the heart of your soul mate—whether known or unknown.
Say aloud:

“Archangel Gabriel, divine messenger of love and emotional truth, I call upon you now. Help me release the past with compassion and clarity. Guide me to the soul whose heart echoes mine. May we recognise each other in divine timing and trust. Amen.”

Journal any feelings, images, or messages that arise.
Let the candle burn down safely.

Check out the Angelorum Love and Relationship Tarot Spreads!

Souls Reunite Tarot Spread (Inspired by the 6 of Cups)

This Tarot spread is one to use when you know in your heart that you have a soul contract with a soul mate or Twin Flame, but you have yet to meet them in this incarnation.