Tarot Card Combination
Five of Cups+King of Pentacles
聖杯五 & 五角星國王
A profound alchemy where grief transforms into enduring wealth. The King of Pentacles builds his empire upon the emotional ruins mourned in the Five of Cups. This pairing speaks of harvesting wisdom from loss, creating tangible security from intangible sorrow. The completion of a painful cycle births material mastery, suggesting that what you've wept over now forms the bedrock of your stability.
This combination reveals a powerful narrative of alchemical transformation. The Five of Cups, with its figure cloaked in regret overlooking three spilled chalices while two remain upright, represents a fixation on emotional loss. The King of Pentacles, seated firmly on his throne adorned with bulls and vines, represents the ultimate mastery of the material realm. Together, they suggest that your deepest disappointments—perhaps failed ventures, broken trusts, or abandoned dreams—are being metabolized into something substantial and enduring. The Earth of the King stabilizes the Watery grief of the Five, not by dismissing the pain, but by using its fertile, transformative energy. You are being called to stop mourning what is irretrievably lost and to turn your attention to the resources that remain. This King knows that true wealth is built on resilience, and your current or future success is directly rooted in the lessons learned from past heartache.
Elemental Analysis
Water (Five of Cups) saturates Earth (King of Pentacles). This is not a flood that erodes, but a nourishing seepage. The emotional waters of memory, regret, and grief sink deep into the soil of practicality and manifestation. This creates incredibly fertile ground—rich with the humus of experience—from which the most resilient and fruitful endeavors can grow. The Earth gives the Water form and purpose.
Numerology Insights
19 reduces to 10 (1+9=10), and then to 1 (1+0=1). This echoes a complete cycle (10) birthing a new, self-determined beginning (1). The wisdom and humanitarianism of 19 here is personal: you complete a cycle of mourning to found a new, sovereign reality. Your 'humanitarian' act is the stability and generosity you can now offer the world from a place of healed wholeness.
Reversal Meanings
Five of Cups Reversed
Five of Cups reversed suggests a refusal to engage with necessary grief, or a sudden release from the prison of regret. The figure looks up, finally seeing the two full cups. Blocked emotional water begins to flow again, but may be chaotic. It's a thaw, promising movement but requiring careful direction to avoid a new flood.
King of Pentacles Reversed
King of Pentacles reversed indicates a corruption of material mastery. The stable throne wobbles; generosity becomes miserliness; stewardship becomes hoarding. Earth without the nourishing Water of heart becomes barren and rigid. This warns of building security on shaky ground or valuing possessions over people and principles.
Both Cards Reversed
Both reversed create a volatile landscape. Unprocessed, chaotic emotions (5 Cups Rx) meet unstable, selfish materialism (King Pentacles Rx). This warns of emotional decisions that wreck financial stability, or using wealth to avoid deep feeling. The healing alchemy breaks down; the cycle of 19 is resisted, leading to repeated patterns of loss and lack.
Spiritual Guidance
Spiritually, this is the path of the wounded healer who builds their temple from shattered stones. The 19 numerology points to a cycle of karmic completion where you achieve spiritual mastery by fully integrating past pain, not transcending it. Your material world becomes a sacred reflection of inner work, teaching that true abundance flows from accepting life's necessary losses as compost for the soul's garden.
Yes/No Reading Guide
A cautious 'yes,' but one that requires you to fully accept a past ending. The potential is rich and real (King of Pentacles), but it is conditional upon you learning from and releasing the specific grief shown by the Five of Cups. Success is seeded in that surrender.
Historical & Mythological Context
The Five of Cups draws from medieval images of lamentation, often a mourner in black. The King of Pentacles echoes Renaissance merchant princes, combining Taurus-like steadfastness with the bounty of the harvest lord. Together, they mirror the historical transition from feudal sorrow to mercantile resilience.
Practical Advice
Honor the mourning period, then deliberately turn your body and attention toward what remains solid and fruitful. Let your tears water the seeds of your future prosperity. Build your throne not in spite of your sorrows, but with their stones. The King shows you how.
Things to Watch
Do not let the memory of spilled cups blind you to the full ones still in your grasp. The greatest danger is building a fortress of wealth atop a swamp of unhealed regret—it will inevitably sink.
Individual Card Meanings
Five of Cups
聖杯五
The Five of Cups shows a cloaked figure mourning over three spilled cups, while two upright cups stand behind them, unnoticed. This card represents grief, loss, and focusing on what went wrong rather than what remains. It suggests a period of mourning and disappointment, but reminds you that not all is lost—there are still opportunities for emotional recovery.
View full meaning →King of Pentacles
五角星國王
The King of Pentacles sits surrounded by abundance, representing material success, financial security, and the ability to provide for others. He has built lasting wealth through discipline and wise management.
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