Up: [[Tarot]] Created: 2022-11-03 Updated: 2025-10-22 > [!leaf] In Brief > Grief, disappointment, regret, loss, betrayal ![[5 of Cups RWS and Earth Woman.webp]] > [!leaf] What Matters and Symbols Can you find the sweet spot when it comes to grief? That’s what this card is about — the danger of doing either too much or too little grieving over losses, disappointments and regrets. No question there’s going to be emotional pain and, if regrets are the issue, self-recrimination. See the three spilled cups, the long dark cloak in the Rider-Waite-Smith image, the storm clouds in the Earth Woman tarot image. These emotions have to be allowed to move through you. At the same time, there are still two cups remaining, an echo of the two cups in the hands of the [[14 - Temperance]] angel. The shadow side of this card is ignoring those two cups, spending too much time in despair, wallowing in it and allowing old stories to define you. In the RWS image, eventually these things that are plaguing us need to become and will become “water under the bridge.” A perspective shift is required from what we’ve lost to what we have. > [!leaf] Actions to Take 1. [[C. G. Jung]] talked about needing to experience a dynamic all the way through. If we’re feeling despair, take it all the way to grief. See [[When a Spark isn't Satisfied]]. That’s the perfect message for this card. You have to acknowledge and fully experience your grief before you can move forward. 2. At the same time, don’t get lost in the old stories that no longer serve you. That’s when grief turns into a comfortable wallow in self-pity. Identify the attitudes and behaviours that are preventing you from getting on with your life and get the help you need to grow beyond them. 3. An interesting suggestion from *Fearless Tarot* is that when you’re getting lost in the trance of focusing only on the negative, try to remember the details of a favourite place. The more details you can bring forward, the more you’ll drop the trance. 4. Journal or freewrite responses to any of these questions or quotes: - What’s ending in my life? What am I needing to grieve? - What decision do I regret? How can I make peace with it? - What have I learned from past disappointments and regrets that I can use to help me with today’s issues? > [!orbit] Book of Job > Thou shalt forget thy misery and remember it as waters that pass away. > [!Orbit] James Hollis > Attachment and loss, attachment and loss — this is the human story. > [!Orbit] Zora Neale Hurston > I have been in Sorrow’s kitchen and licked out all the pots. Then I have stood on the peaky mountain wrapped in rainbows with a harp and a sword in my hands.