Five of Cups tarot card meaning: upright, reversed and symbols

The Five of Cups shows a figure in a long black cloak looking down at three spilled cups. Two cups still stand behind him, but he has not turned to see them. Across the river, a bridge leads to a small house. It is a card of grief, regret and loss. This page covers what the Five of Cups means upright and reversed, what Pamela Colman Smith drew and a gentle spread for hard times.

At a glance

• Upright keywords: regret, loss, sorrow
• Reversed keywords: acceptance, moving on, forgiveness
• Number: 5 in the suit of Cups
• Suit and element: Cups, Water Later tradition
• Astrology: Mars in Scorpio Later tradition
• Yes or no: No Modern

The element and the planet in a sign (one of the 36 ten-degree slices of the zodiac called decans) come from the Golden Dawn system of the 1880s and 1890s, not from the first tarot decks. The yes or no lean is a modern reading habit. Use these layers if they help you remember the card, and skip them if they get in the way.

The card: what Pamela Colman Smith drew

Waite wrote: “A dark, cloaked figure, looking sideways at three prone cups; two others stand upright behind him; a bridge is in the background, leading to a small keep or holding.” A keep is a small fortified tower, a place of shelter.

The black cloak

The cloak is the color of mourning, and it covers him almost completely. Grief can feel exactly like this: wrapped up, heavy and turned inward.

Three spilled, two standing

Three cups have fallen and their contents are lost. Two are still upright behind him. The card does not say the loss is small. It says it is not everything.

The bridge

A bridge crosses the river to a safe house. There is a way forward when he is ready. Nobody is asking him to cross today.

Upright meaning

Upright, the Five of Cups makes room for grief without rushing you past it. Something has gone wrong, ended or been lost, and the first honest response may be regret or sorrow. The card does not ask you to find a silver lining on schedule. It asks you to notice what hurts.

Let yourself feel the loss. Talk to someone, write it down or keep a small ritual of remembrance. When you are ready, and only then, turn around and look at what is still standing.

Reversed meaning

Reversed, the Five of Cups often shows acceptance, moving on and forgiveness. You begin to turn toward the cups that remain and the bridge that leads home.

Healing rarely goes in a straight line, so be patient if the sadness returns. Forgiveness, of others or of yourself, can be slow and still real. It can also show grief that is being pushed down too fast, so check that you are not skipping the feeling.

Reversals are optional. Many readers never use them and read every card upright, and that is a complete way to read. If you do use them, decide before you shuffle what a reversed card will mean for you, and keep to that choice for the whole reading.

In love, work and spirituality

Love

Upright, sadness after a breakup or disappointment in a relationship. Reversed, forgiving, healing and being open again.

Work and money

A setback, a lost opportunity or regret over a decision. Reversed, learning from it and moving on.

Spirituality

Grief as part of spiritual life, including honoring the dead. Reversed, finding comfort and meaning after loss.

As feelings

As someone’s feelings, the Five of Cups shows sadness, regret or disappointment. They may be grieving something, possibly what happened between you.

The Five of Cups as past, present, future and advice

• Past: A loss shaped you, and you may still feel it.
• Present: You are grieving. Be gentle with yourself.
• Future: A disappointment may come, and you will get through it.
• Advice: Let yourself feel it, then look at what remains.

A Minor Arcana card usually describes the everyday texture of a situation: a mood, a conversation, a task or a step. If the Five of Cups appears next to a Major Arcana card, let the Major name the big theme and let this card show how it is playing out in feeling and the other things Cups rule. If it keeps coming back over several days, write down what was happening each time.

Is the Five of Cups a yes or a no?

In modern yes or no readings, the Five of Cups leans no. Loss and regret point to no for now. Tarot is better at showing the shape of a situation than at handing down verdicts, so if the question really matters, turn it into an open question such as “What do I need to know about this?” and draw again.

Affirmation and journal prompts

Affirmation: I let sorrow exist without making it the whole of me.

Reversed affirmation: I turn toward what remains when I am ready.

Journal prompts:

• What am I grieving, even if it seems small?
• What is still standing behind me?
• What would help me cross the bridge, when I am ready?

What the Five means in tarot

Five is the unstable middle: conflict, loss, contest and disruption. After the steady Four, something shakes. The Fives are the hardest cards of each suit for many beginners, but they are also where the story starts to move again.

Here is how the Five looks across the four suits:

• Five of Wands: conflict, competition, tension
• Five of Cups (this card): regret, loss, sorrow
• Five of Swords: conflict, defeat, betrayal
• Five of Pentacles: financial loss, poverty, insecurity

Learning a rank across the suits is one of the fastest ways to learn the Minor Arcana: the number or court rank gives you the shape, and the suit gives you the setting.

The history and art behind the card

In most decks before 1909, the number cards showed only a pattern of suit symbols, the way a playing card does. The Sola Busca deck from late 1400s Italy is the famous exception. Pamela Colman Smith gave every Minor Arcana card a scene with people in it, and that choice is a big reason the Rider-Waite-Smith deck is still the easiest deck for beginners. In Italian decks the suit is Coppe and in the Tarot de Marseille it is Coupes, goblets. Card players often match Cups with hearts in an ordinary deck, which is a good clue to what the suit is about. Smith gave the cups faces, rivers, rainbows and dreams. The water in so many of her Cups scenes is the easiest clue to the suit’s element.

When A. E. Waite published The Pictorial Key to the Tarot in 1910, he listed these divinatory meanings for the Five of Cups: “It is a card of loss, but something remains over; three have been taken, but two are left; it is a card of inheritance, patrimony, transmission, but not corresponding to expectations.” Reversed, he gave: “News, alliances, affinity, consanguinity, ancestry, return, false projects.” Waite said he was offering “a harmony of their meanings” gathered “from all sources”, which means older fortune-telling lists, not his own reading of the picture. On this site I read the picture first and treat lists like this as history.

A spread for the Five of Cups

Use this gentle spread when you are grieving or disappointed.

1. What have I lost? The loss to honor.
2. What remains? What is still standing for me.
3. What helps me heal? The support or step toward the bridge.

Lay the three cards in a row, read each one on its own first, then read them together as a short story. Write one sentence for each position and one small action you will take.

Common questions

Is the Five of Cups a yes or no card?

It leans no. It shows loss and regret, though not the end of everything.

What does the Five of Cups mean in love?

Sadness and regret after a breakup or disappointment. Reversed, forgiveness and healing.

What does the Five of Cups mean reversed?

Acceptance and moving on. You start to see what is still standing.

Related cards

• Death: the Major Arcana card of endings and transformation
• Three of Swords: another card of heartbreak
• Six of Cups: the next card, where gentleness and memory return

Keep learning

The Five of Cups is part of the lesson Cups in my free Tarot for Beginners course. To see the whole suit on one page, go to the suit of Cups. To keep walking the suit, read the card before it, Four of Cups or the card after it, Six of Cups, or go back to all the card meanings. For the suits and numbers in one place, see The Minor Arcana: suits and numbers made simple. For every card with keywords, affirmations and examples, see my book The Novice’s Guide to Tarot. If you would like a printable cheat sheet for all 78 cards, my 45-page Tarot Workbook is on Etsy.

Sources

• A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (London: Rider, 1910), Part III, sections 1 and 2.
• Pamela Colman Smith and A. E. Waite, the Rider-Waite-Smith tarot (London: Rider, 1909).
• Nicolas Conver, Tarot de Marseille (Marseille, 1760).
• Lauri Mukkala, The Novice’s Guide to Tarot, entry for the Five of Cups.