MINOR ARCANA

Five of Cups Tarot Meanings

There aren’t many sad cards in the cups suit, a lot of the cups reflect happiness and optimism, but the Five of Cups is one of the more melancholy ones we can get in the suit. With the Five of Cups, we are faced with chaos in the realm of emotion, intuition, and creativity.

Whether this is grief, an intuitive feeling that we’ve acted on and didn’t give us the result we’d been hoping for, or even a creative project that didn’t go to plan. There is an overwhelming feeling of loss in the Five of Cups that can be tricky to move on from.

Five of Cups Upright Meanings

In the upright position, the Five of Cups is about loss in all its forms. It’s that feeling of a tie being severed and having to deal with the emotional fallout of it all. Some of the key meanings of the Five of Cups are:

Grief
Separation
Priorities
Loss & gain
Processing

It can be a card that leaves us feeling a bit low, but the Five of Cups also comes with a really positive message. All things must pass and the feelings of loss and grief are a natural part of life. We are always able to pick ourselves up and move forward, no matter how hard it may be. There are always new opportunities on the horizon and if we need to immerse ourselves in our own sadness in order to process everything, then we are allowed to do so.

Five of Cups Reversed Meanings

In the reversed position, the Five of Cups shows how we are coping with the Five of Cups energy. It is a supportive message that shows that all our struggles are being recognised and that better things are coming. Some of the main reversed meanings of the Five of Cups are:

Acceptance
Forgiveness
Moving forward
Healing
Letting go

Sadness is a part of our natural cycle. Nobody has ever moved through life and avoided sadness, grief, and loss, it is something we all have to navigate and something we are all able to work through. Often we can cause our own suffering by holding on longer than we need to, so learning to let go and trust that you’ll be ok is a strong message within the Five of Cups.

Reading Five of Cups in a Tarot Spread

When the Five of Cups shows up, start by reading it as a moment of stasis. Nothing is being forced onto you, it’s simply a gentle push in the right direction. Take a look at the other cards in the spread and decide if the Five of Cups could be hinting at a reluctance to move on or something that tells us that now is the time to let go and head off into recovery.

The Five of Cups is filled with compassion, so approach it as such. Allow it to be a soothing balm on any wounds or burns you may have sustained and allow it to take you by the hand and set you on a healing journey.

Five of Cups as An Invitation

The Five of Cups is a perfect invitation because it’s not demanding anything of us, it’s inviting us to feel our way forward and decide when the time is right for ourselves.

For Five of Cups, this invitation could be the following:

An invitation to grieve and let the emotion wash over you for as long as you need
An invitation to assess whether it’s time to move forward or if you could benefit from a bit more time where you are
An invitation to shift focus to all the things that are on offer to you that you may have been overlooking
An invitation to forgive and break free from self-inflicted negativity

Five of Cups as Sage Advice

The Five of Cups is a very nurturing advice giver, it doesn’t claim to know all the answers but it offers support as you figure things out for yourself. It focuses on gentle guidance and opens your eyes to things your emotions may have been clouding you from.

Some advice Five of Cups may offer is:

There will always be healing, we just have to allow time for it and recognise when we’re ready to continue on
With every loss, there is a gain, whether it’s a literal gain or a metaphorical one
In order for things to get better, we have to let go of the things that are causing us pain
Release any negativity you’ve been holding onto as it doesn’t serve you and it doesn’t solve anything

Five of Cups as a Lesson

Some of the lessons the Five of Cups teaches us is about knowing when to let go and knowing when to give ourselves time to process and work through emotions.

Some lessons that Five of Cups may offer you are:

A lesson in grief and working through it
A lesson in self-created emotional suffering
A lesson in what it takes to heal and how to know the right way to heal
A lesson in forgiveness and acceptance

Five of Cups as a Redirection

As a redirection, the Five of Cups tells us to turn around and focus on something new. It encourages us to leave the past in the past and move towards the future.

As a redirection, Five of Cups could symbolise a need to:

Accept a loss and look towards the future, instead of dwelling on it
Sort out your priorities and turn your attention away from the things that are not serving you
Work on your inner healing, put yourself first and go through the motions in your own time
Accept the loss and give yourself permission to look up and see the light

Cups

The cups are vessels for our emotional and intuitive selves. They manage and work within these areas of our life, meaning they often help us make sense of things like relationships with others and the self. This is why the cups are often seen as ‘love’ cards. They don’t refer exclusively to romantic love, but they can.

In the Five of Cups, we are once again dealing with a disruption in emotional and intuitive stability. We now have five cups to manage and often we can put too much of ourselves into only a select few cups instead of sharing it out equally.

Water

The cups correspond to the element of water. They have the same fluid and free flowing properties as water and therefore they can be tricky to pin down exact meanings.

The water within the cups suit reminds us what needs to be nourished. It helps us see where our metaphorical cups are overflowing and where they are empty and in need of replenishing. Just like elemental water, the cups want us to find balance, to move through life seamlessly and without obstructions.

Fives

Traditionally within numerology, the number five represents chaos and also humanity. After all, being human is chaos in its own unique way. It is all about disruption and having to deal with the unexpected.

Within the Five of Cups we see this in its meanings of grief and loss, the two most unexpected but human emotions we all have to face at some point. The fives within the realm of cups remind us of the emotional ups and downs of being human and living a life.