Upright the Four of Cups is read as apathy, discontent and a blindness to an opportunity already at hand; reversed, as renewed interest, an offer finally accepted, or the end of a period of withdrawal.
This is one of the small cards where Waite's printed meaning and the picture agree unusually closely, both stressing dissatisfaction with what one has rather than any external misfortune; the trouble is located inside the querent's own attention rather than in their circumstances, a distinction worth holding onto since it changes what kind of advice the card supports. A reader who treats this card as describing bad luck is generally missing its point, which is that the fourth cup was offered.
Because the withdrawal it pictures is internal, the Four of Cups is frequently paired in practice with the suit's other apathy or fatigue cards, particularly the Eight and Nine of Cups, and readers disagree about how to distinguish them: the working convention, though not a rule fixed by any single source, treats the Four as discontent that has not yet acted, the Eight as discontent that walks away, and the Nine as satisfaction that may or may not be worth trusting.
Reversed, the card's shift toward acceptance is read as a genuine change of attitude rather than a change in the offer itself, since nothing in the picture's fourth cup changes between the upright and reversed reading, only whether it is finally noticed.