Guess the Cups card from its scene: tarot quiz
A traveller with a star on his staff, a fish leaping from a cup, a dolphin by a throne: read the scene and pick the right Cups card out of four.
- 5 questions
- ≈ 2 min
- +5 bronze keys for a flawless run
Can you recognise a Cups card from a description?
In this quiz you get a description of a scene instead of a picture: who is there, what they wear, what is happening around them. Your task is to pick the Cups card it belongs to out of four. Every scene comes from the Tayna deck artwork, so the details are exact: cloak colours, animals, landscape and sky.
This kind of test trains visual memory and helps you read spreads faster. Once you can spot a card by a single detail, its meaning follows on its own: a traveller with a starry staff brings to mind walking away toward something bigger, and a dolphin by a throne suggests calm amid the waves.
What to look for
Three things stick best: what the figure is doing, where it is and what surrounds it. Someone sits, someone dances, someone walks away or rides. Some scenes take place by the sea, others in a meadow, others under a starry sky. Animals and birds on the Cups cards almost always mean something.
Notice what is missing too. Not every card shows a person holding a cup: sometimes they turn away or leave, and that is part of the meaning. One question in the quiz is about exactly that.
If a scene does not ring a bell, open the card page through the link under the explanation. It describes the whole picture and what its details mean.
Rules
Each round draws five questions from twelve, and the options are reshuffled every time. Answers are final, but replays are unlimited. Tayna keys go to a round without a single mistake. The quiz pairs well with the single-card quizzes of the suit: take it before and after them to see the difference. After a few rounds small details start to stand out.
All questions and answers
Open after you play: the full question set with right answers and explanations.
1. Which card shows a traveller with a star-topped staff walking off into the night?
Right answer: Eight of Cups
The Eight of Cups: a traveller in a crimson cloak heads for a mountain bay, leaving eight cups behind.
2. Which card shows a man in a red turban with an orange feather, smiling with eyes closed?
Right answer: Nine of Cups
The Nine of Cups: the wish has come true, so he can fold his arms and simply enjoy it.
3. Who dances beside the embracing couple on the Ten of Cups?
Right answer: Two children
On the right two children dance hand in hand: the Ten is love that has room for everyone nearby.
4. On which card does a glowing blue fish leap out of the cup?
Right answer: Page of Cups
The Page of Cups stands on the shore rocks: the fish is a shy message of feeling and surprise at one's own heart.
5. Which card shows a rider in a white-winged helmet guiding his horse right through a stream?
Right answer: Knight of Cups
The Knight of Cups carries his feeling like a gift: openly, gracefully, straight through the water under a full moon.
6. On every Cups card, the people hold a cup in their hands.
Right answer: Myth
Not on every one: the Eight's traveller walks away from the cups, and the Four's young man ignores the one offered.
7. On which card does the hem of a white gown flow straight into glowing water?
Right answer: Queen of Cups
The Queen of Cups: her hem flows into the water, her cloak bears moons and stars, and palace lights glow far off.
8. On which card does a dolphin leap from the waves by a throne, with sailboats far off?
Right answer: King of Cups
The King of Cups sits on a stone throne amid dark waves: calm in the middle of the storm.
9. Which card shows a young man in a green tunic with red sleeves sitting under a big tree?
Right answer: Four of Cups
The Four of Cups: the young man keeps his eyes down and misses the cup a hand offers from a cloud.
10. On which card does an old fortress darken on a hill across the river?
Right answer: Five of Cups
The Five of Cups: the sun sets beyond the river, a fortress darkens on a hill and a stone bridge crosses the water.
11. On which card does a little girl in a red headscarf look up at a boy?
Right answer: Six of Cups
The Six of Cups: a boy hands a girl a cup of lilies, and the whole scene glows with warm golden light.
12. On which card do you see a sunset over a river, cypresses and a hilltop town?
Right answer: Two of Cups
The Two of Cups: this landscape shows between the young woman and man as they touch their cups.