Month: March 2013

Five of Cups (Disappointment)

Five of Cups (Revised) by G A Rosenberg

Mourn not for the lost

Rejoice at what still remains

and that yet to come

I knew and I didn’t what was to come
I threw myself into it
Everyone warned me
what he was like
what she was like
and what would happen
yet still I jumped in
The experience would be a good one
or so I reasoned
and then the dance began
I lost myself in mistaken belief
I told myself I was having ‘fun’
and then it happened
and then she left
and then he left
and then I was left…
all steps in the dance
Why do I feel so bereft?
I paid for the tickets
I attended the show
choreographed the moves
and lost the plot
So what have I learned?
What I already knew
and that I am someone
who learns this way
to understand…
— G A Rosenberg

Cups deal with our emotional nature including love, both that as in a relationship between two (and rarely more) people and that of friends and companions. Fives stand for conflict, change and a breaking through to higher thought. If the four of cups talked about how we look at something new on the horizon and our expectations, then the five of cups show how we handle things when things don’t live up to those expectations and we end up meeting with disappointment. One may ask in colloquial terms what appointment is it we have made that has been dissed.
Most of the time when we enter into a new situation be it a relationship or a new social group or job, we can quickly size up where the problem areas lay and indeed with a little bit of reflection can see exactly how it will play out and yet even when the outcome is likely to be negative, we follow down the path anyway, perhaps because we realize we need the experience and accompanying lesson to be driven home. The biggest lesson of the five of cups is not that we have suffered setbacks because that is inevitable in life. What is it that we have gained in the process and what are we left with becomes paramount. Because quite often, if we are not wasting time ‘crying over spilt milk’, it is that which is the gift.

Astrological Correspondence – Mars in Scorpio – The Mars in Scorpio energy loves to test itself. It throws it self into a situation head on often overlooking the emotional ramifications of it. Quite often people with this energy can see through facades and manipulate others in any situation. Quite often this can result in manipulating and fooling themselves as well.

I Ching Correspondence – 9) Hsiao Ch’u / The Taming Power of the Lesser

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The trigram of the Sun is over that of Heaven. The image is that of a small wind blowing the clouds together yet not powerful enough to cause rain. Sometimes a weaker element of ourselves such as fear or loss or disappointment can rise up and take precedent over our stronger aspects. This is usually temporary but it becomes difficult to realize this when in the midst of trauma.

When the five of cups turns up in a reading, it is usually referring to a recent loss or disappointment. Depending on other cards in the reading, the person may be ‘crying over spilt milk’, choosing to look at what has been lost rather than what they still have or what they may have gained from the situation.

When the five of cups is reversed, the person is looking at their loss with more equanimity. Perhaps they have friends who are talking them through it or perhaps they have discovered gratitude for that which they have left and that which they gained from the experience. It may also refer to remaining open and vulnerable to new experiences despite that which may have been lost in the past