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Five of Cups Tarot Card Meaning

The Five of Cups Minor Arcana Tarot card reflects those moments in life when we experience upset, disappointment, hurt, or grief. It’s not often a welcome card but one necessary nonetheless, through the flowing of tears we can access healing. Some cups are still standing after all.

As the storyline of the Tarot tells us, next in the Six we will move on to sweet, simple moments of bliss and nostalgia; but for now we must sit with what ails the heart. It is the only way through. If we look closely, we may see that it is in fact a blessing in disguise…

Read on for more Five of Cups meanings, including Astrological and Numerological correspondences, what it means reversed and in a career, love, or general reading:

The Five of Cups

The Five of Cups typically depicts a person dressed in mourning, grieving over their spilled cups. As such, this card can represent moments of pain, heartbreak, and sadness.

Of course, just like all the Tarot cards, that’s not to say that when you pull the Five of Cups in a Tarot reading you will automatically experience hardship! That’s just not how the Tarot works.

When this card shows up for us we can simply take a moment to sit with and listen to what ails the heart, perhaps it is something immediately obvious (like actual grief), or perhaps it is a smaller moment of disappointment that we pushed aside when really we should heed it.

If you have experienced a big loss then this card will be clear to you, grieving is an essential part of the healing process and an emotion common to everyone across time. To know joy is to know sadness, to care for something is to know pain at some point. Honour your heart, it’s all it asks for.

With this card I’m reminded of the myth of Inanna, who descended into the Underworld to console her sister Ereshkigal after the death of her husband. When she got there, in her suffering Ereshkigal hung her on a hook (an allegory for how we can sometimes push those trying to help us further away or cause them pain in ours).

Inanna knew it was risky for her to descend to the Underworld and so had enlisted the help of two servants lest she should not return. When they got there, they heard Ereshkigals wails of mourning, and echoed them back to her. When she cried “ohhhh” they repeated “ohhhh”, until eventually Ereshkigal was soothed and let them all go.

This myth shows us that the heart simply wants to bared witness to, to feel seen and heard. There is no need to fix or try to solve, simply listen.

What we sometimes call negative emotions are simply emotions, neither good nor bad, they send a message and all they require of us is to be present to them.

When this card shows up in a reading and there is no obvious cause for heartbreak, I ask where might there have been a disappointment, a moment where you got your hopes up only to have them dashed? Or something you were looking forward to, counting on, excited for, something that you were emotionally invested in, that is now no longer here?

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Five of Cups Tarot Card Description

In the Pamela Colman Smith Tarot deck we can see that although the overarching colour of the sky is a sombre grey, there are two cups still standing, thus the message of this card is also a reminder to turn around and appreciate the cups still standing after we have sufficiently mourned the cups that have spilled! These are position behind the person, where they have to turn around to move forward.

Almost a lesson in “no use crying of spilt milk”. This card is an invitation to yes, grieve what hurts, but also to make sure not wallow. We can’t live in grief forever. We can see in the distance there is a bridge available to us to cross over the river of emotion and to reach the other side with the town of salvation.

It is also interesting that when we look closer we can see that two of the spilled cups had red wine (or blood) in them but one of the cups appears to have spil green, poisoned. Sometimes things leave us for a reason and perhaps they were not as golden as they may have seemed in the first place. When we look back we may actually see that although we cared for something, it was not in our best interest (this of course does not necessarily make the grieving process any easier but it can help us to move on from it)!

This is also what’s called a stage card as it appears the figure is standing on a stage, sometimes we can get stuck in the motions of old patterns or mindsets, acting out a certain persona or situation repeatedly— move on.

Going again with the storyline of the Tarot, I also wonder if this card is a case of not appreciating what you had until it’s gone, if we go with the traditional meanings of the Four of Cups.

In the Thoth Tarot deck, the five cups have appropriately dried up of water completely now, and the sky is a passionate red. They are positioned in an inverted pentagram, a symbol of matter over mind.

Numerologically as a 5 it refers to the fifth element, spirit. Whereas with the four we are dealing with physical reality (the four elements, four cardinal directions, four seasons etc.), here in the five we have moved onto what makes us alive (five fingers and toes, five “limbs”, five senses). In the Tarot, 5s typically represent challenge, conflict, and contraction (before the eventual expansion and sweetness of the 6).

This also connects it to the Major Arcana Hierophant card, our beliefs and guidance, the bridge between the spiritual and the mundane. This can suggest seeking counsel for assistance, as well as checking in with your current teachers, and questioning where your own beliefs have come from.

Astrologically, it is a Mars in Scorpio card, where it is domiciled and strong. Mars in Scorpio is strategic, efficient, and perseverant. It is determined, driven, and enduring. Mars in Scorpio is also highly protective, private, and intense, deep rage can be seething. Let it out.

Five of Cups Upright Tarot Card Meanings

Generally, the Five of Cups upright can represent pain, upset, heartbreak, disappointment, sadness, grief, loneliness, fear, hurts, wallowing, emotional tenderness, and the invitation to honour whatever the heart feels, and then appreciate what we have.

Five of Cups Reversed Meaning

A reversed Five of Cups suggests an avoidance of grief, a pretending that the heart doesn’t feel what it feels, an inability to sustain the depths of pain, or denial around your emotions. Don’t resist.

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Five of Cups in a Relationship Reading

As with any Tarot card, the actual significations of the Five of Cups in a love Tarot reading will of course depend on the situation at hand, the question asked, the position in the spread it has fallen in, the cards surrounding it, and your own intuition.

Overall, the Five of Cups suggests some kind of upset, a hurt was cause by one of the partners and there is a need to acknowledge and accept the woes of the heart. Honour the emotions, listen to them, and then move on to appreciate what is still here.

Five of Cups in a Career Reading

Again, the nature of the Five of Cups in a career reading will depend on the context, but in general it can represent some kind of work conflict, perhaps you had your sights set on a professional goal that has left you disappointed in some way, or something didn’t go to plan. Either way, whatever sadness you feel in relation to your job loss, allow yourself to feel it, don’t brush past.

It may have been a blessing in disguise, and there are still cups standing to take from the situation, but don’t minimise your emotions— good business relies on it. If it refers to a financial loss, it suggests that not all may be lost!

So those are some Five of Cups Tarot card meanings, I hope they’re insightful for you! Let me know in the comments section below if you have anything else to add or any questions.

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