Card 40 • cups

Five of Cups

Brief Description

The Five of Cups represents deep anguish, bereavement, and the weight of negative emotions that can leave you frozen while others move on. It urges you to honor your sadness and experience grief rather than deny it. At the same time, the card reminds you not to let sorrow define your identity or consume your life. In its reversed position, the card signals acceptance, letting go, healing, and the possibility of finding new love or regaining your footing after pain.

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Title

Five of Cups

Poem

Dismay, despair, regret, and remorse hit the heart like great waves with momentum and force.

Meaning

The Five of Cups depicts a scene of deep anguish and bereavement. While others appear to move on, you are frozen in a state of intense suffering. This card is a reminder that while it is important to honor your sadness and experience grief, we cannot let it define who we are as people.

Reversed Meaning

In its reversed position, the Five of Cups symbolizes letting go, moving on, and learning to accept love after pain.

Upright Keywords

agony, bereavement, loss, weighed down by negativity, focusing or obsessing over the negative, trauma, guilt, anger, remorse, suffering, divorce, feeling overwhelmed by small things

Reversed Keywords

acceptance, letting go of grief, moving on, healing, replacing toxic habits with good ones, finding new love, regaining your footing, getting out of a funk

Visual Description

A large, pale shark-like sea creature arches through an oval underwater scene, a long spear or pole intersecting its body diagonally. Five goblets are arranged in the lower center, glowing in pale light with two tilted outward and three upright, set against swirling kelp, ribbons, and distant shoals of fish. The palette is cool blues and purples with a few warm red swirls, and a narrow decorative border frames the image. Small tendrils and sea plants curl around the creature and the weapon, giving a sense of submerged motion.

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Children of Litha tarot

✍️ Deck author(s): Alexandria Huntington

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All card images and descriptions are taken from public sources. They are used for review purposes only. All rights to these images and descriptions belong to their creators. If you believe there is a copyright infringement, please contact us at [email protected].