The Five of Cups as Feelings: Regretful, Sad and Not Yet Turned Round

Written by Chaya the Medium.

The Five of Cups stands over three spilled cups with two upright behind. Here is what I would read when it appears as someone's feelings, and why the two standing cups are the hopeful part.

If you want the short answer, I would read the Five of Cups as feelings of regret and sadness. In a feelings position the card suggests the person is grieving something between you, a loss, a mistake, a way it went, and is facing the spilled cups rather than the ones still standing. It does not tell you they want to make it right. It tells you they feel the loss.

This is a card of sorrow with a bridge in the background. The sorrow is real. The bridge is also real, and the figure has not turned toward it yet.

The Five of Cups upright as feelings

Tina Gong's the Five of Cups guide at Labyrinthos associates the upright card with loss, grief, disappointment and regret. When the card lands in a position that asks how someone feels about you, I read those meanings as the shape of the feeling rather than as a verdict on the person.

Upright, I read the Five of Cups as a person who is sad about you, or about what happened, and is caught in looking at it. They may regret what they did. They may regret what you did. Either way the feeling is grief rather than anger, and grief is a form of caring.

What I would not read into it is movement. The two cups behind the figure represent what is still possible, and the card is honest that the person is not looking at them. Whether they turn is theirs to decide.

What the card does not tell you

The card does not confirm that the person's regret is about losing you rather than about their own behaviour, that it will turn into action, or that the two standing cups are meant for you. No card lets a reader check a real person's private feelings. What a card can do is give you an honest picture of the feeling you are hoping for or fearing, and a prompt to compare it with how the person actually behaves.

The Five of Cups reversed as feelings

Reversed, the Five of Cups is often read as acceptance, moving on, or alternatively refusing to grieve at all. As feelings, I read the reversal as a person beginning to turn toward what remains, which may include you, or as someone who has decided to be fine about you without ever having been sad, which tends not to last.

In your own question, ask which fits. Has the person started to notice what is still good between you? Or are they performing recovery over something they have not felt? A reversed card is a prompt to notice which of those is true from what you can see, not a diagnosis of the other person.

The Five of Cups as an ex's feelings

Asked about an ex, the Five of Cups can suggest that they regret how it ended and feel the loss of you. That is a tender thing to know and it is not a decision to return. Many people grieve an ex sincerely and still conclude that the spilled cups were spilled for a reason. My guide to asking a psychic whether an ex will come back explains what a reading can and cannot say about that question.

The Five of Cups as a new person's feelings

For someone new, this card usually describes a person who is grieving something that came before you and cannot yet see what they have in front of them. Their feeling for you may be one of the two standing cups. You cannot make them turn round. You can be there when they do.

What to watch for in their behaviour

Look for sorrow aimed at the past: they talk about what went wrong, they apologise or they ruminate, they are gentle rather than bitter. A Five of Cups feeling looks like regret. If it looks like blame, read the reversal or a Swords card instead.

What to record before drawing again

Keep three short notes: the question you asked, what the person seems to be grieving, and what is still standing between you that they have not looked at. The third note is the bridge. Another draw will mostly reflect the same bowed head.

For comparison, the Three of Swords as feelings and the Six of Cups as feelings describe different feelings. The the Five of Cups card meaning page covers the card outside feelings questions, and the general card meanings at Biddy Tarot are a useful second reference. You can practise a single-card reflection with the free daily tarot tool. For a personal interpretation, my guide to a love psychic reading online explains how I work, and the three-card tarot listing and customer reviews are worth reading before deciding whether to order.