Cups symbolize love and creativity of all types and on all levels, so the ominous look of the Five seems rather dark and out of place compared to the bright and cheerful feel of most of the other Cups. In this card, a distraught man stands brooding over his spilled cups obviously paying no mind to the two perfectly good cups still in his possession. Symbolism at its finest, The Five of Cups is a card of consideration: how do you choose to view your glass—half-empty or half-full?
The Five of Cups in a reading indicates that you are focusing on the negative of a situation rather than taking stock of what you do have. As creatures who learn by experiencing emotion, it is our nature to be disappointed / hurt / frustrated / angry / (fill in the blank) when things do not go as we had hoped. Using these disappointments for the learning experiences they are, we can go inside ourselves and mull over what went wrong and what went right and readjust our mindset and actions for our next approach. In our journey of life we improve ourselves and use the knowledge gleaned from our challenges to create a better “next time,” whatever the “next time” may be.
In this manner, in all of these “same scenarios with just slightly different details” that I mention in My Take on Tarot, the gist of every “lesson” is to experience the scenario, process the mental and emotional information, and take our newfound knowledge with us into the future, moving forward, creating the way we want it to happen the “next time.”
When the Five of Cups appears in a reading you are not moving forward. You are stuck in the “experience,” just kind of dabbling in the “process,” and coming nowhere near the “moving forward.” The truth is not always pretty, but to your own detriment you are focusing on the empty portion of your half-full glass. The situation, whatever it is, cannot be changed, and the only thing to do now is to move on.
Focusing only on the negative is like picking a scab. The wound never heals; it just festers and periodically flares up causing all sorts of pains: mental, emotional, and physical. We sometimes have a hard time moving on from past hurts, and if we allow it, it can become all-consuming, but what is in the past is in the past—leave it there. We cannot change it; it happened. Learning from the experience and then choosing to focus on what you have in your possession is an important message of this card. We are in control of our own thoughts, and choosing to “cry over spilt milk” and wallowing in the “what if’s” is our own choice.
In Numerology, Fives mean movement, and in this case you are being told, “Don’t stand there feeling sorry for yourself; move! ” You are in complete control of the situation! Be grateful for what you have. Being miserable is your own decision.
Reversed
When this card appears reversed all of the above is true, only exacerbated.
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