What the image shows
A man and a woman face each other and exchange cups. Above them floats a winged lion's head over a staff with two snakes wound round it, a version of the caduceus. The ground under them is level and they stand at the same height.
The tradition reads the exchange rather than the pair. Each is giving and each is receiving, in the same gesture, which is what separates this card from the many cards about wanting someone. The symbol above is generally taken as the meeting producing something neither brought on their own.
Upright and reversed
Upright the reading is a genuine two way connection, with partnership, mutuality and attraction as the keywords. It is most often asked about in romantic contexts and it is not limited to them. A working partnership, a friendship or a reconciliation all sit comfortably under the same reading, and the card says nothing about how long any of them lasts.
Reversed, the tradition offers something one sided or something that has come apart. Those are different situations. The one sided reading covers a connection where the giving runs mostly in one direction, which may still be live. The separation reading covers one that has ended or is ending. A third reading, a misreading of what was there, is also in common use. Look at whether the surrounding cards describe an active situation or a finished one before choosing.
Twos, and what cups add
A two is the first pairing in a suit, the point at which the suit's raw potential meets something outside itself. In wands that becomes a decision, in swords a deadlock and in pentacles a balancing act. The number itself only supplies the relation.
Cups carry feeling and attachment, so the relation here is emotional rather than practical, and it is the one suit where a pairing is read as good in itself rather than as tension. That is why the Two of Cups is the friendliest two in the deck, and also why its reversal is felt more sharply than the others.
Water, and the question it puts
The element is water, taken from the suit. The deck data here assigns no planet or sign to the numbered minors, and the Golden Dawn decan attributions that exist elsewhere are not part of the correspondences this site uses. Saying so is more useful than borrowing one.
The prompt is simple and often avoided. In the connection you are thinking about, is the giving actually running both ways, and would the other person describe it the same way you just did. That is checkable, and it is a better use of the card than asking it whether the relationship will last, which it cannot tell you.
Questions people ask about this
Is the Two of Cups a love card?
It is often read that way and the reading is broader. Any genuinely two way connection fits, including partnerships and friendships. What the card marks is mutuality rather than romance specifically.
What does the Two of Cups mean reversed?
Commonly a one sided connection, a separation, or a misreading of what was there. These are different situations, so whether the spread describes something active or something finished usually decides.
What is the symbol above the figures?
A winged lion's head above a staff with two snakes around it, a variant of the caduceus. The tradition reads it as something produced by the meeting itself.
Does it mean a soulmate?
No. The card describes an exchange on level terms and makes no claim about permanence or destiny. This site does not make predictive claims of that kind.
How does it differ from the Lovers?
The Lovers is a trump and carries a choice with consequences attached. The Two of Cups is smaller and more specific, describing the quality of a connection rather than a decision about it.
Does the card have an astrological ruler?
Not in the system used here. Numbered minor cards carry their suit element, water in this case, and the planetary and sign attributions are kept to the major arcana.