5 of Cups - Tarot

The 5 of Cups is often referred to the card of disappointment.  It carries with it the energy of loss and sadness.  It can come up in extreme situations such as death, breakups and betrayals.  More often, it tends to come up in relation to failed hopes and expectations.

When we open up through love and vulnerability with other people, it is difficult to accept when they do not give us back the love we expect.  At some point in most relationships, we will be disappointed by another because of what they deny us, or take from us, or reject in us.  This hurts deeply when we care so much for another person, and it can be a difficult process to move through.  Some relationships will survive through this, showing that the bond of love is stronger than the pain, where other energies will end and there will be no recovery from this disappointment.

The 5 of Cups represents the energy of grief.  Grief is the result of death, that is not only physical but can also be emotional, mental and spiritual.  When we encounter the 5 of Cups, it is because we are experiencing a grieving process of losing something of importance in our life.  However, it is important to understand the nature of death. Death is about transformation from one energetic state of being into another. The 5 of Cups does not always mean that love is lost completely, however, it can not return to what is was before.  It can in fact be reborn into something completely new, though we may not see this clearly until our disappointment and grief has passed.

For the energies that do end, it is important to see that this was inevitable.  Not all energies that come into our life can remain.  What is lost completely here in the 5 of cups, was always going to end this way, it was only a matter of time.  Either this energy was incapable of ever living up to our expectations, or it was simply time for this energy to exit from our life.  How long we mourn and how deep this wound will cut us will depend on how much love we experienced with this energy.

The lesson through the 5 of Cups is that we must honor this grieving process.  We must allow ourselves to feel disappointed and all the sadness, anger, depression etc.  In order to move on from grief, we must go through it so we can heal it and eventually let go.

The 5 of Cups does also come with a message of hope. Not all is lost even when it appears so.  When we finish this process of grief, we will find that there is a love that remains within us.  This love can never be taken from us.  It is eternal and infinite.  We can never lack love and it can never really be taken from us because love is who we are, and it is not dependent upon something outside of ourselves. When we are ready to move forward, this love will continue to flow from us, and new connections will open once again.

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Image is from the Light Seer's Tarot by Chris-Anne.