Five of Cups

Identity

Symbols

• Three Spilled CupsThe visible loss — where his gaze is locked.+

  Waite calls the three cups 'prone', a word for bodies lying face-down, and has the figure eye them 'sideways', not straight on. 'Loss in Pleasure' is the Golden Dawn's name for it, with Mars ruling the first ten degrees of Scorpio and the card placed in Geburah.

• Two Cups Still Standing BehindThe remainder yet unseen — which counts again the moment he turns.+

  Waite's sum is plain, 'three have been taken, but two are left', and 'taken' names no taker. The drawing sets the two at his back: the viewer can count them and he cannot, so what remains is seen first from outside the figure.

• The Black CloakThe mourning garment he chose — both shelter and severance.+

  Waite gives no name, age or trade, only 'a dark, cloaked figure'. The black cloak falls from neck to foot and hides even the hands, so the lowered head is the one gesture left for the viewer to read.

• Castle Across the River · the BridgeThe keep still stands across the river, and the bridge is already built; healing does not require him to construct the road anew.+

  Waite calls it 'a small keep or holding' (land held by tenure) and lists 'inheritance, patrimony, transmission, but not corresponding to expectations' among the meanings. The river parts figure and keep; the bridge alone spans it.

Story

The eye lands first on the dark upright of the figure, then follows the bowed head down and to the side, toward the ground in front of him. Whatever stands behind his back is outside his line of sight but inside ours, so the viewer knows more than the figure does. Further back runs a river, and a bridge carries the eye across to a small keep on the far bank. Nothing in the scene is moving. The loss has already happened; what is drawn is the standing-still that follows, with the way across in plain view and unused.

Correspondences

Elemental Dignity

Shadow

Related Cards

Death

Four of Cups

Six of Cups