The Five of Cups as How Someone Sees You: A Loss They Are Still Facing

Written by Chaya the Medium.

The Five of Cups as how someone sees you means they see you among the spilled cups. Here is what the picture includes, upright and reversed, and where the standing cups are.

If you want the short answer, the Five of Cups as how someone sees you means they see you through regret: as something they lost, something that went wrong, something they are still grieving. It is a sorrowful picture and a tender one. The person is looking at the spilled cups, and you are in them, and the two cups still standing behind them have not been looked at yet.

This is you as one of the three spilled cups, or as the ones still standing behind the figure. They are facing the spilled ones. They have not turned round.

The Five of Cups upright as how someone sees you

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 sees you, I read those meanings as the image the person holds of you, which is not the same as who you are and not the same as what they feel. the Five of Cups as feelings covers what they feel; the Five of Cups as intentions covers what they plan. This page covers the picture. The general card meanings at Biddy Tarot are a useful second reference.

Upright, I read the Five of Cups as a person who sees you with sadness: as a loss, a mistake, a disappointment, something they wish had gone differently. The picture is grief rather than anger, and grief is a form of caring. They are not seeing you as the enemy. They are seeing you as what hurt.

What I would not read into it is movement. The two upright cups represent what could still be seen in you, and the card is honest that the person is not looking at them yet.

What the card does not tell you

The card does not confirm the person's regret is about losing you rather than about their own conduct, that the picture will turn, or that the standing cups include you. No card lets a reader see inside another person's head. What a card can do is describe the kind of image that fits the person's behaviour toward you, and give you something to check against how they actually treat you.

The Five of Cups reversed as how someone sees you

Reversed, the Five of Cups as how someone sees you means the picture beginning to turn: the person starting to see what remains, what was good, the cups still standing. Some readers read the reversal as refusing to grieve, which produces a picture of you that is falsely fine.

In your own question, ask whether the person has started to notice what is still good about you, or whether they have announced they are over it and started treating you as if nothing happened. A reversed card here is a prompt to notice whether the picture the person holds has gone sour or gone wrong, not a verdict on you.

The Five of Cups as how an ex sees you

Asked how an ex sees you, the Five of Cups suggests they see you through regret and loss, and that the regret is real. That is tender to know and it is not a plan. Many people grieve a picture of someone sincerely and still conclude the 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 how a new person sees you

For someone new, this card usually means the person is grieving something that came before you and cannot see you clearly through it. You cannot make them turn round. You can be one of the standing cups.

How to check the picture against reality

Look for sorrow aimed at the past: talk of what went wrong, apologies, gentleness rather than bitterness. A Five of Cups picture is regret with you in it. If what you see is blame, that is a different card.

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.

For comparison, the Four of Cups as how someone sees you and the Six of Cups as how someone sees you describe different pictures. The the Five of Cups card meaning page covers the card in full, and the Five of Cups as a yes or no and the Five of Cups as timing cover the other questions people most often ask of it. 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.