Five of Cups

Today’s card is the Five of Cups.  As usual, we’ll start with Waite’s view on the card:  It is a card of loss, but something remains over; three have been taken, but two are left; it is a card of inheritance, patrimony, transmission, but not corresponding to expectations; with some interpreters it is a card of marriage, but not without bitterness or frustration.  Reversed – news, alliances, affinity, consanguinity, ancestry, return, false projects.

To me, the Five of Cups is a card of mourning.  The three cups spilled over in front of the person, and the two upright behind him or her typifies that sense of loss.  When we are in mourning, we fail to see what good is around us, and that, simply, life goes on.

The water in the card is flowing, but calm; another symbol of life quietly going on, and the loss is the person’s own.  With time, of course, the person in the card will see the two cups behind him or her, and life will move on.  Mourning, though, tends to never truly leave us, but that is life.  It is important to look ahead and concentrate what is with us in life.