Five of Cups

UPRIGHT

A cloaked figure stands grieving over three spilled cups, two more standing upright behind him that he has not yet noticed. The bridge to the castle is visible across the river. The Five of Cups is grief honestly felt — the loss that demands its own time, with the quiet promise that not everything has been spilled.

REVERSED

Reversed, the Five of Cups is grief lingering past its season, or the turn toward the two cups still standing. The card can name a person stuck in the loss who cannot yet look at what remains, or one beginning the slow walk toward the bridge. Both readings are honored; the timing is the question.

Return to the full deck, or draw the cards and see Five of Cups in context.