Five of Cups: tarot meaning, upright and reversed

A cloaked figure faces three fallen cups while two remain upright behind them.

Upright

grief · disappointment

A loss deserves acknowledgement while remaining support is still present.

Reversed

recovery · unfinished grief

Attention may begin returning to what remains, without erasing the loss.

In a reading

The position gives this card a particular task: a description of the situation, a challenge, or guidance. Read its image and meaning alongside the other cards and the question that brought them together.

Golden Dawn correspondence

Mars in Scorpio, 0–10 degrees. This is the attribution in Book T.

Sources

A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot. These notes are original interpretations of the Waite–Smith imagery, informed by that text.