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The suit of cups (sometimes known as chalices, goblets and the like) refers to the element of water and hence the emotions. It is a suit that is concerned with love and with feelings, for better and for worse. As stated elsewhere, water can be nurturing and refreshing but in a large enough quantity it can be a cold, dark place where millions have drowned.
Cups are "friendly" with pentacles (think "water + earth") and "unfriendly" with air and fire, meaning that if a cups card is surrounded by cards of those "unfriendly" suits, it could affect the meaning of the entire reading.
Three astrological "water" signs are related to cups, they are
and this is useful information when selecting a significator to identify your querent (the person whose reading you are doing). If the querent is a middle aged Scorpio male, then you would use the King of Cups to represent him, for example.