The IX of Cups and Dreams Come True — The Willow Path Tarot

The IX of Cups is an interesting card. It speaks of emotional contentment, personal satisfaction, and dreams come true. It is often referred to as the wish card, as in, your wishes come true when this card shows up in a reading. I generally find it a pleasant addition to any reading and like to see it pop up in my daily draw. It feels like good things could happen that day!

IX of Cups tarot card image from the Rider Waite Smith tarot deck.

In the Rider Waite Smith version of the card, we see a smiling man sitting in front of nine Cups arranged along a banquet table. This guy sure has an air of gratification. What more could he need than all those cups displayed behind him? There is every indication of a culmination, that it is time to sit down, relax, and enjoy all that life has given you.

And I do interpret the IX of Cups as wishes fulfilled. I like this card meaning. And the cards around the IX of Cups in a reading can indicate in what area of your life your dreams can come true. Pentacles cards point towards worldly gain, monetarily or in the accumulation of material possessions. Swords could indicate education, wisdom, the gain of powerful knowledge and skill. Cups cards would suggest an abundance of love, healthy relationships, and fulfilling personal connections. Wands could denote creative satisfaction, the achievement of a passion project or the meeting of a soul desire.

Sometimes, though, and it’s just sometimes, the IX of Cups gives me a little jolt of warning. Something is off. There is a sense that a wish has come true, but it wasn’t quite what you expected. “Be careful what you wish for.” This is a cliché refrain, often an admonishment to young children to think through the consequences of getting what they want. It can feel a bit like someone is raining on your parade. But at the same time, consequences are, in fact, real, and it can be a good idea to consider them before chasing after your wildest dreams.

This card always reminds me of a book I read as a kid that contained this “careful what you wish for” moral. It was called The Wish Giver by Bill Brittain. In one storyline, a young girl falls in love with this guy who is a traveling saleman. Her wish is that her beau will put down roots in her hometown, instead of continuing to travel. Then what happens? The guy grows actual roots and turns into a tree. She gets her wish, he does stay in town, but it’s not exactly the life she was hoping for since her love is now a tree…

This story always haunted me a little. It also made me very careful about how I worded my wishes. I was terrified that unclear phrasing would lead to unintended outcomes! In retrospect I would not recommend this book to children as I think it teaches you that you shouldn’t ask for what you want and the world is out to trick you. I think that’s why I don’t like to give the IX of Cups the meaning “careful what you wish for” because I think that wishes are important and we shouldn’t be scared to express our heartfelt desires because we’ll somehow be punished for that.

I want to emphasize, that the IX of Cups does not always come with this trigger warning. Sometimes it just feels like happiness and contentment. There are a few signs that it might not be all roses, that you can look for. One sign is an intuitive hit. You flip over the IX of Cups and it just feels like a warning. The more you work with the tarot and develop your intuition, the easier it will be to notice the moments when you have an intuitive knowing, and fold that inner wisdom into your card interpretations and tarot reading.

A more concrete sign that the IX of Cups carries an admonition or forewarning is in the cards that surround it in a reading. Many reversed cards would be a signal that there are issues buried beneath the surface here that could lead to undesirable consequences. Then there are your classic cards of difficulty: the IX or X of Swords, The Tower and The Devil, the V of Cups and V of Pentacles, the VII and X of Wands, etc. The IX of Cups combined with any of these types of cards show that there are obstacles, challenges, or sabotages to your wishes coming true. All is not as smooth, gentle, and relaxing as it may appear in the IX of Cups card. Perhaps something is lurking under the tablecloth that could topple the whole arrangement of Cups.

Obstacles and difficulties abound in life. It can feel like nothing is all good, and definitely nothing is all bad. We learn from the balancing act of finding the lessons in our hard times, and living with our challenges even when things are beautiful and smooth. It’s never all one thing or the other. Accepting that we cannot make life perfect, live entirely in joy, and have all our wishes turn out exactly has we envision to cease all pain in our lives, well, that is skillful living.

Here I am on the Oregon Coast at Short Sand Beach.

We can be happy while still missing someone who has passed. We can create and express ourselves while still leaving room for growth and the liberty of other beings. We can accept the things we cannot change without resentment, knowing we are capable of getting through a lot of hard things. And we can have our biggest wishes come true, and not feel let down by how they didn’t make our lives perfect and erase all our problems.

This week I am on a trip out to the west coast to visit with one of my favorite people in the world. I love to travel, sometimes I say I even live to travel, that it is my life purpose to go and see things. It’s the thing that makes me feel happiness, the most fulfilled, and the most aligned in my life. And what could be better than traveling to see someone I love, who lives far away, and getting to spend a week together having fun?! Dreams come true!

But I’ll tell you what, I am tired, achy, stressed about work, and a little sick from eating and drinking on the less than healthy side. I feel like the embodiment of the IX of Cups. I have everything I want and it’s so saturating that it can lead to excess. There are consequences to traveling, like jet lag, hangovers, sore muscles, tummy aches, conversation fatigue, etc. that are so real. Traveling may be my passion and it’s my greatest dream, but it still has its difficulties. And I think that is the small, gentle warning that comes with the IX of Cups. Yes, you get what you wish for and it’s good to focus on how that is amazing and satisfying. Don’t ruin it by overly noticing all the other stuff that comes with it that can be a challenge.

Nothing is ever all just one thing in life. The IX of Cups points out that even the most exquisite pleasure comes with a splash of pain. And hopefully, vice versa.