Five of Cups
The five of cups in the tarot's Minor Arcana: a cloaked figure looking at three spilled cups, two still standing behind him. A. E. Waite read it as loss, but with something left over.
Meaning
Waite describes the card: "A dark, cloaked figure, looking sideways at three prone cups", and "two others stand upright behind him; a bridge is in the background, leading to a small keep or holding."
What does the Five of Cups mean?
Waite's meanings are "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, "news, alliances, affinity, consanguinity, ancestry, return, false projects". His list of additional meanings adds "generally favourable; a happy marriage; also patrimony, legacies, gifts, success in enterprise", and reversed, "return of some relative who has not been seen for long".
In older decks
The Italian suit is coppe, cups, among the marks of the earliest cards in the British Museum's catalogue of 1876. Papus reads it as "Victory over the obstacles after a struggle."
Read next
- Next in Tarot cardsSix of CupsThe six of cups in the tarot's Minor Arcana: children in an old garden, their cups filled with flowers. A. E. Waite read it as the past, memories and childhood.
- The same shape in Andean and Inca symbolsTumi (ceremonial knife)A ceremonial knife with a half-moon blade from the north coast of ancient Peru. The gold tumis of the Sicán (Lambayeque) culture carry a god on the handle, often identified as Naylamp, the dynasty’s mythical founder. The Tumi de Oro was declared a pre-Columbian symbol of Peru in 1981.
See also
The Fool, The Magician, The High Priestess, The Empress, The Emperor, The Hierophant.
Sources
- The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, by A. E. Waite, William Rider & Son, London, 1910 (the sacred-texts.com transcription, on the Internet Archive), The Lesser Arcana; Some Additional Meanings of the Lesser Arcana
- The Tarot of the Bohemians, by Papus, Chapman & Hall, London, 1896, translated by A. P. Morton (scan on the Internet Archive), The Divining Tarot, second lesson: the minor arcana
- A Descriptive Catalogue of Playing and Other Cards in the British Museum, by W. H. Willshire, Trustees of the British Museum, London, 1876 (scan on the Internet Archive), General history: the marks of the suits
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols formed from curves and waves, letters and numbers or squares and rectangles.
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed September 30, 2026. How we research
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