Five of Cups
The Five of Cups is a card of loss, regret, and mourning, reflecting on the deep sense of isolation and solitude that accompanies grief. It highlights the painful, unrelenting nature of loss, suggesting that while it never completely heals, life can eventually grow around the pain. The card also offers a glimmer of hope, indicating that solace and a brighter future await when the mourner is ready to move forward.
Keywords
Loss and Isolation
This is the card of loss, regret and mourning. Loss can come in many shapes and sizes, but there are some aspects of it that are universal and I think the sense of isolation is one of them. No matter how many people we have around us, no matter how much they want and try to help, no matter how much they can empathize, each loss is unique and only the person experiencing it knows how it truly feels. Whether by choice or circumstance, we stand alone in our grief, and that isolating solitude is the most frightening part of it.
Mourning and Vulnerability
Mourning cloaks the figure in a shroud through which they are difficult to see and harder to reach. The person swaddles themselves, tender and vulnerable and nursing themselves and the feeling of loss they are going through. Water runs in the shape of a river, unchecked and unconfined by the vessels, like our emotions that bleed freely during a time of loss and pain. Three of the cups are spilled, their contents soaking into the earth at the foot of the cloaked mourner.
Enduring Nature of Grief
Grief is not something that ever truly goes away or heals, as we are so often told. Big losses are not something we 'get over.' 'Time heals all wounds' is a lovely adage on the surface, but it isn't always true. However, comfort lies in the fact that our lives grow around our pains. In the immediate aftermath of loss, everything in our life has to do with it. But as time goes on, our world gets bigger, and though the pain is still there, we have more to focus on, more to keep us from despairing. New skin grows over the wound.
Hope and Resilience
And so, two full cups wait in reserve beside the figure. A world and a home wait for them across the river for when the mourner finds the strength and the motivation to cross it.
Fyodor Pavlov tarot
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