Tarot | Weekly Draw | Five of Cups

The Five of Cups from the Robin Wood Tarot

Tarot Weekly Draw is a one card approach to exploring the tarot. Every Monday morning I shuffle my cards, cut the pile three times, reshuffle and choose the card at the top of the pile. The card that comes up contains a message or energy for the week ahead. 

The Five of Cups

At first glance the Five of Cups can appear rather frightening and sombre, a vision of mourning and of loss. Yet as with all cards in the tarot, there are good sides to the cards that scare us and there is always the potential for growth and happiness after pain and heartache.

When I see the Five of Cups in a reading I think of a period of sorrow stemming from having invested emotionally in something. The suit of Cups is the suit of emotions, of feelings. When we pour our heart and soul into a relationship, a dream, a pathway, a decision, it can feel devastating and extremely disappointing if things do not unfold as we would have liked them to. Sometimes it might be that past patterns of behaviour, or past patterns of thought, no longer serve us either, and this can also prove very painful. 

Yet although the shocking red liquid spills from the three overturned cups, two cups stand upright behind the cloaked mourner, a message of potential and of opportunity after loss. It is important that when we experience disappoint of an emotional kind we take the time to mourn, to process and accept our feelings, while hopefully gaining some comfort from the upright cups that stand waiting for us when we are ready to move forwards. 

As soon as I pulled the Five of Cups today I instantly recognised it's significance for me this week. I have been working hard on changing certain thought patterns that I have housed for years, and while it feels liberating to move forwards and embrace the new cups in front of me, it is also proving to be a painful journey at times. These are thought patterns that I have always relied upon, and to simultaneously realise that they no longer serve me but that I haven't quite secured positive alternatives yet is frightening at times. I've been having a bit of a wobble listening to other people's perceptions of me and my life at the moment, and I've been worrying about their thoughts and worries somehow knocking over my new cups and sending me back to the upturned older ones filled with anxieties and fears. 

There is no reason to be so afraid though. Everything in life is a process and I'm making good progress tackling my anxiety and establishing the thought patterns I choose to live my life by now. While those close to me may worry about me and while their worry can slip into anxiety which they feel I need to alleviate for them somehow, I recognise that this isn't really my job. I don't need to adopt other peoples' anxieties and 'solve' them. I can live by my new, healthier thought patterns, choosing not to fall back into my old patterns of worry and anxiety while accepting that people may worry about me anyhow. I don't have to convince anyone of who I am and the goals I now have. I don't have to cling on to those upturned cups; I can choose to leave them behind and move forwards.

While I may still be mourning the things I've been through this year, such as having to leave work and ask for help with anxiety, I know I'm on a better path. I have better cups to pick up and invest in emotionally!

What do you see in the Five of Cups?

     

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