Steampunk tarot (Moore) - Five of Cups

shadowdancer

Another recognisable scene for those familiar with RWS based depictions.

Here we have a bar room scene, focussed on the bar area itself. We have three stools, with the two flanking stools empty. The middle stool has a person (male?) seated slumped over the counter. Three chalices to his right are over turned, red fluid (wine/blood?) flowing onto the floorfrom one of them. The other two look empty.

The female barmaid is offering a tray containing two other chalices, both upright. I like how Barbara makes a point of saying she is to the right, and therefore could be representing a change of energy flow for the future.

I kinda had my mind kick into story telling mode again :)

** What can be made of the two flanking stools? Does it show he feels he is alone, no friends etc? Or were his fellow drinkers there at one time, but have since left? If so, what caused them to leave, and what caused the drinker to feel so saddened?

** Why is only one cup flowing? What does the liquid represent?

**What can be made of the two empty cups? Could the flowing one show emotions are draining away? And could the two empty ones show that the person involved is feeling numb and empty? I think if you focussed on one of these cups in particular it could really fine tune the interpretation and description of how the querant is feeling.

** Is the barmaid right to offer two further chalices? If someone is drunk and depressed, what could further alcohol do?

** If you see the person as drunk as opposed to emotionally distressed, how would that change your interpretation?

This is why I like this card - we don't have to just womble down the same old route "3 overturned cups, but 2 upright, so there is still something positive from the situation".
If I see the person as drunk I would definitely want to go in a different direction.

I would also want to look at the bottles on the shelves behind. They look old and dusty. Who knows what they contain. (Bit like when you collect those liqueur bottles from holidays abroad. Good idea at the time, but they never taste as good once you are back home and the memories of the holiday have all but faded away).Could they come into play when doing a reading?
 

La Force

5 of Cups - Steampunk tarot

One thing I noticed that I found interesting, look behind the barmaid, at the shelving you will notice on the lower shelve that there are 2 white ghost like glasses and another one the other side of the barmaid, so we do have 5 upright glasses ghostly ones, like there an illusion of possibilities. going with Barbara 2 upright glasses of the past and one for the future. so there is a total of 8 cups, 5 still upright, 3 tipped over. so I take this as a link to the 8 of cups as in you have the choice to walk away from the hurt, pain, sadness, and to quit drinking go to AA. seeking help, and moving forward with you life.