The heart after a breakup. You still have not deleted their number, and you go out of your way to avoid streets you walked together. Even in a current relationship, this card comes up if you keep reopening wounds from old quarrels. Before setting out for a new connection, first calmly go over which parts of the past relationship were good and where it hurt.
Three spilled, two remain
Five of Cups: Card Meaning
Five of Cups: Card Meaning
Reading It Upright and Reversed
Five of Cups · Minor Arcana · Cups · Five
In the Five of Cups, a figure in a black cloak looks down only at three fallen cups. Upright, it means a period of quiet sorrow in which the heart is bound by loss and fails to notice the two cups still standing intact behind.
A figure wrapped head to toe in a black cloak stands with head deeply bowed. In front, red and blue water flows from three fallen cups and soaks the ground, while behind, two sound cups stand upright. In the distance a bridge crosses a river, and a castle stands on the far bank. The way across is already there.
The figure turns his back on the remaining cups and stares only at the fallen ones. The two cups are within arm’s reach, yet they never enter his view. The distant bridge and castle tell the same story. There is a place to return to and a means to cross, but right now this person simply does not yet have the strength to raise his head.
I drew the Five of Cups. Is there a way to get back what I missed?
The three fallen cups cannot be stood up again. That there is no righted cup anywhere in the picture is the answer. So the Five of Cups talks about changing direction rather than restoring things. Instead, the two cups behind you are still intact, and if you put your strength there, the weight of the loss clearly lightens. Remember that the longer you cling to undoing it, the more even the remaining cups dry up.
Five of Cups: Love
Upright
Reversed
Lingering attachment fades little by little. Hearing news of them no longer sets your heart churning as before, and you find the courage to sort the photos you took together. If you are in a relationship, a time comes when a conversation clearing old resentment becomes possible. It is a fine flow for meeting someone new, so if someone sets up a meeting, do not refuse.
Five of Cups: Money
Upright
A period of facing money you lost. You confront amounts already gone, like investment losses, money never repaid or repair costs far larger than expected. If you pour in more money to make it back, another cup falls. Gather your strength to protect first the two cups behind you, that is, the cash still left and your steady sources of income.
Reversed
Some of the leaked money comes back, or at least the hole gets plugged. Once you clear overdue payments and wipe the loss records cleanly from your household ledger, the numbers become clear. There is no dramatic reversal, but once you can picture how the remaining money will be used, your situation changes considerably.
Five of Cups: Work
Upright
It is after work you poured effort into fell through. You were left off the promotion list or the project you clung to came to a halt, and the time you spent feels empty. Still, there is something to salvage from failed work. The skills you gained and the people you met in that time do not vanish when a cup tips over, so be sure to count them as experience.
Reversed
You want to get up and work again. You go back over the cancelled project and fold it into the next plan, and you manage to cooperate as much as needed even with an uncomfortable colleague. If you have been considering quitting, you can now weigh it by conditions rather than emotions. Count your accumulated experience and people first, then move.
| Card | Five of Cups — Minor Arcana · Cups · Five |
|---|---|
| Suit | Cups — Element: Water. Feelings and relationships — it shows what the heart holds and what it lets flow away. |
| Rank | Five — Five — the place where friction and conflict cut in. |
| Upright Keywords | Loss · regret · not seeing what remains |
| Reversed Keywords | Pulling yourself together · forgiveness · finding what remains |
Five of Cups Upright
Loss · regret · not seeing what remains
A card that comes right after letting something go. Something that cannot be rewound has already happened, like a breakup, a failed exam, a broken contract or a wound from someone you trusted. This picture does not hurry you to fold up your sorrow. If you skip the time of accepting that what was spilled is spilled, the next step will hardly come.
But if you linger too long in regret, the sums go wrong. You lost only three, yet you feel you lost everything and erase the worth of the remaining two yourself. What people who have come through such a period later regret most is less what they lost than the memory of being indifferent to those who silently stayed by them. Turn your head just slightly, and you will see them.
Five of Cups Reversed
Pulling yourself together · forgiveness · finding what remains
The bowed head slowly lifts. Only after grieving fully do the two standing cups first come into view, so even when you speak of the same thing, the texture of your voice changes. Without pretending the loss never happened, you count what remains one by one. Recovery usually comes like this, soundlessly, the way your appetite returns one morning.
Forgiveness blooms here too. Not forgiveness to let the other person off, but to take back the time of yours that was held captive by what happened. It does not need an apology to be settled, so even if the other person never knows, you can finish sorting your heart. But if you hurry to act fine, you slide back to where you were, so do not skip the stages.
Something to Try the Day This Card Appears
Fold a sheet of paper in half and write on one side what you let go this time, and on the other what is still by your side. Fill it so the list of what remains, from people and health to familiar skills and good habits, is longer than the list of losses. Then fold the losses side over and look only at what remains. Today it is enough to care for just one of them.
Cards from Other Groups
Cups: 14 Cards
Ace of Cups
Two of Cups
Three of Cups
Four of Cups
Five of Cups
Six of Cups
Seven of Cups
Eight of Cups
Nine of Cups
Ten of Cups
Page of Cups
Knight of Cups
Queen of Cups
King of Cups
A card read on its own means something slightly different from one placed beside other cards. If something is on your mind these days, pick four cards to read on, and if you are curious about your inborn nature, open a Saju reading as well.