Cups

Cups are associated with Water.
The water element maintains communication, oratory, deep knowledge, mysticism, sensuality, and imagination. In an uncontrolled manifestation, it generates emotional instability and maintains fiction and fantasies. It is an element of hidden knowledge which, in order to be gained, require an initiatory journey or a sacrifice that corresponds to the ideals issued by that aspirant. Water is also considered as the origin of life. 

Wands

Wands are asociated with Fire.
Fire, similar to the sun, is a symbol of fecundity and fertility, but also of the darkness and suffocation caused by the smoke and the flame that consumes and destroys. Fire can be passionate and give rise to anger, hatred, and war, or it can represent love and care. Intuitive knowledge is associated with the fire element, as are revelations. The vertical position of the flame expresses the desire for spiritualization or the spirit controlling the intellect and the entire body.

Pentacles

Pentacles are associated with Earth.
Earth is the source feeding, fertilizes and supports unconditionally. It represents the supreme conditioning or the embodiment. 
Earth is the one imposing rules that are easy to understand and observe for man. Man himself was created from clay on which life was breathed. The earth maintains within itself all the riches of the world, being fruitful and mysterious.

Swords

Swords are associated with Air.
The air element governs the mental plane and is associated with intellect. If the earth belongs to people, the air belongs to Gods and to all unseen forces.
Air is a symbol of spiritualisation and of all elements that are not easy to identify or quantify. Reasonings cannot be included in a recipient, nor can they be measured. Air is a space that enables the passing from the terrestrial world to the spiritual or heavenly one.