Cosmic Tarot - 5 of Cups

tink27

A woman or a man sits in front of 5 spilled cups, three with little drops left in each one. In one sense they look unhappy,, tumbling deeper into depression, but the curl of the lips also makes me think they could be smoldering with anger.

A wilted flower lies before them, perhaps a sign of a broken heart! Wrapped in a cream colored shawl, this person is shrouded in the darkness of their home. Outside, the winds look as if they are picking up momentum.

http://www.angelpaths.com/decks/cosmic/cups/fiveofcups.html

How dare you do this to me, she cries. Anchored in hopelessness and despair, she struggles hard to take a breath. She is tired and full of pain, stunned by her sudden loss and unable to form any coherent thoughts. she’s not sure right now what she feels, she’s too stunned to feel anything!

Did these cups spill or did she drink what was in them to numb her pain. Or is she feeling guilty for feeling the way she does and is trying hard to suppress and keep her emotions hidden.

Frustration, pain, anger or shame all initiate the quest for change and the beginnings of transformation. The colder she gets the drowsier she will become…soon wrapped in her own dreams.

tink :love:
 

Arania

Or maybe someone else drank these cups, her husband a drinker who had promised to stay sober? I love this card, so many possibilities.
 

Papageno

this card is so typical of Norbert Losche. His depictions of despair, deceit, anguish and pain are so profound. always give me the shivers.

you'll notice that in this card all 5 cups are empty. he doesn't pull his punches. the allegory and emotive quality in his cards is extremely powerful.
most other decks show a ray of hope (though it may be false) by leaving 2 cups standing.
this depiction says to me that whatever dreams she had were self deceptions and hoping against hope is always doomed to failure.
 

star-lover

very interesting take there about self deception and hoping against hope

this card is overly dramatic in my view - its as if the woman has spilled all the cups herself - self punishment of some form - she prefers unhappiness to happiness - perhaps offered much love but shooed it away for some reason

the rose is in front of her but is wilted - definitely a card about lost love lost opportunity and much self pity here

but that pink warm shawl, blanket over her legs could be a sign of at least comforting oneself despite and hence its not all doom and gloom for her future

overdramatisation comes to mind
 

paradoxx

is the woman in a state of meditation, she seems oblivious to the wind outside, it must be cold.
 

Myrrha

This woman’s quiet sadness and desperation seems more all-encompassing than the agony that the man in the Seven of Cups is going through. Her regrets are total, she feels like she is left with nothing. It can happen to people, it does happen to people. Outside the open door the trees are bare and the wind is blowing. It is autumn, a time of harvest, of reaping what you have sown. Her regrets are for her own mistakes not for things others have done to her.

I don’t see any visual similarities to the Thoth Five of Cups. The title of the card is Disappointment and the astrological attributions are Mars in Scorpio. From what I can figure out (mostly from reading Lon Milo Duquettte’s book) Mars rules Scorpio and furthermore the Fives are all in the kabbalistic sphere that corresponds to Mars. So it is like Mars, Mars, Mars, Mars. All Mars all the time. That isn’t good for relationships.

Lilly says the influence of Mars is “In feats of Warre and Courage invincible, scourning any should exceed him, subject to no Reason, Bold, Confident…” so the Martial impulse is to just grab at what he wants, and tolerate no compromise. It is a hot dry kind of influence that soon uses up and blasts away all the tolerance and relational energy of the Water suit. Expect fighting, arguments, perhaps even treacherous behavior.

The woman in this card has a fairly masculine face, especially for this deck-- Mars is considered a masculine influence. She looks angry as well as sorrowful. I feel sorry for her because she expected something pleasurable and beautiful from the cups but didn’t get it. That disappointed expectation is worse than if things were always going to be lousy.