The Suit of Cups corresponds to the element of Water, the assignment given to this card by the Order of the Golden Dawn. It is all about Emotion. While this is the Suit that typically shows us about our love lives, it is about all emotions, and all relationships, from the ones we have with a significant other, to the ones we maintain with our friends and family, and the one we have with ourselves as well.
 
When a matter of timing is involved, it is usually only a couple of weeks to a month. The Suit of Cups is the second suit and corresponds to the season of Summer, with the Summer Solstice taking place in the second Cardinal, watery sign of Cancer. When the Cups cards come up in a reading, the querent has either asked about a relationship, it deals with family or other types of relationships, or the situation is emotionally charged.
 
Characteristics for the Suit of Cups can be the full range of human emotion, from joy, love, happiness, and contentment to sadness, grief, hurt or loneliness. We have the capacity to fill our cup with goodness, or pour it away if we are not careful. The negative side of the Suit of Cups deals with emotions that are out of control, or the manipulation of emotions.
 
Being the suit of emotions, the Suit of Cups corresponds to the playing card suit of Hearts, naturally. In some decks, it goes by the name of Hearts, Chalices, Goblets and more. This does not change the meaning of the cards from deck to deck. As it relates to people, the Cups Court Cards are usually used to represent those with a Water sun sign: Cancer (yours truly), Scorpio and Pisces.
 
Major Arcana Cards that correlate to the Suit of Cups are as follows: The High Priestess, The Chariot, The Hanged Man, Death, The Moon and Judgement. As a side note, Judgement had previously been assigned simply to the Element of Fire, however with the discovery of Pluto in the 1930's, this planet rules the water sign of Scorpio that is associated with Judgement.