Five of Cups
When I teach spinning, especially when the class is out-of-town, I generally do two spreads...one two-card spread that I learned from Tink (here on AT) asking what energy surrounds me and how to best use that energy...and another Tink favorite, a 7-card "Focused" spread that informs me of anything I need to know about the class(es) or my surroundings. Recently, when I was teaching out-of-town, I followed this same reading routine of mine, and Robin's "Five of Cups" came up, in addition to the "Three of Swords." Whoah! Talk about a red-flag-moment that I needed to pay attention to!! Turns out this not-so-wonderful energy was swirling around me in the bedroom that I slept in and I must admit I was thankful to know it in advance of my first class to be held the next day. It's that kind of energy that can lead me to have fitful nights and wake up with a migraine. At least with this notice, I could do things to protect myself and be at my best for teaching.
The figure in the Five of Cups is definitely not having the best of days by a long shot. We can't see if the person is a male or female, but that's irrelevant to my readings as I'm not held to the gender, age, race, etc. depicted on any card. Robin's drawing does show five cups...with three of them tipped over, spilling a very red liquid. Blood is what often comes to my mind first, indicating the depth of despair and/or loss this person is suffering. Robin also mentions the liquid could indeed be wine and if that seems to be so in any of my readings, I question whether the querent or someone they know is under the grips of alcoholism or drug abuse. For one reading I did, the red liquid seemed to actually be red ink...as a teacher might use to correct a paper in school...and therefore it struck me that maybe a querent's important piece of written work was rejected or somehow didn't "make the grade."
'course there's possible, if not probable, reason for HOPE, even in this card so full of sorrow and grief. After all, there are still two cups that are upright! I often wonder that if the figure would just open up the cocoon of a cloak that's cutting him/her off from the world AND turn around, then the hills "of enlightenment," as Robin calls them, would become evident and his/her grief would begin to dissolve away and the positive path ahead would become much more clear and accessible.
Perhaps the cloak is a self(or otherly)-imposed wall, possibly built for self-preservation...where the figure has cut themself off from others because of abusive situations, their own guilt or that of others, defeat, regret, illness, shame, deep loss, feeling sorry for themselves, etc. In any case, there are still those two upright cups...where if the person just looked at them and accepted their presence, they would see that all is not lost. Perhaps the two cups represent two people, who the querent has failed to see, which are still there and rooting for him; in his corner, so to speak. Or maybe the two cups are emotions that have long been squelched within the querent; waiting to be noticed and utilized to aid the querent out of the depths of despair they are presently in.
No matter what, I like that Robin included rays of hope within this otherwise melancholy and rather depressing card.