Tarot Card Combination
Five of Cups+Six of Cups
聖杯五 & 聖杯六
This pairing reveals a profound emotional transition where grief transforms into healing through memory. The Five of Cups mourns what's lost, while the Six of Cups offers nostalgic solace. Together, they suggest that revisiting the past—not to dwell, but to reclaim forgotten joys—provides the balm needed to move forward. The master number 11 amplifies this as a spiritually significant turning point.
The Five of Cups and Six of Cups together form a narrative of emotional alchemy. In traditional tarot, the Five depicts mourning over spilled cups while ignoring those still standing—a fixation on loss. The Six shows a child offering a cup to another, symbolizing innocence, nostalgia, and simple gifts. This combination suggests that the path through current sorrow lies in reconnecting with foundational joys, perhaps from childhood or earlier, simpler times. The Water element duality indicates deep, possibly overwhelming feelings, but the progression from 5 to 6 implies movement from stagnation to gentle flow. This is not about forgetting pain, but about allowing memory to provide perspective and emotional sustenance.
Elemental Analysis
Double Water creates a potent, intuitive tide but risks emotional inundation. The Five's stagnant pond of regret meets the Six's gentle, nourishing stream. This is the element of memory, dreams, and the subconscious—both cards ask you to dive deep, but the Six provides the buoyancy of sweet recollection to prevent drowning in the Five's sorrows.
Numerology Insights
5+6=11, a master number of spiritual revelation and intuitive illumination. In this context, 11 suggests the emotional journey between these cups is not random but holds profound soul-level meaning. It amplifies the Water element's psychic qualities, turning personal grief into universal insight.
Reversal Meanings
Five of Cups Reversed
Five of Cups reversed indicates a gradual release of regret, a decision to stop mourning what's lost. While upright it clings to spilled cups, reversed begins to acknowledge and utilize the cups that remain. This is the turning point where self-pity starts transforming into acceptance.
Six of Cups Reversed
Six of Cups reversed warns of nostalgia becoming a prison. It suggests being overly attached to an idealized past, or perhaps refusing to acknowledge that childhood patterns no longer serve adult life. There may be a need to release sentimental attachments to move forward.
Both Cards Reversed
Both reversed indicate a complex liberation from the past's emotional hold. The reversed Five releases active grief, while the reversed Six cautions against replacing it with rosy retrospection. Together, they advocate for clear-eyed presence—learning from the past without being anchored to it, whether in pain or pleasure.
Spiritual Guidance
Spiritually, the sequence from 5 to 6 mirrors the soul's journey through despair to compassionate remembrance. The master number 11 overlay suggests this emotional process holds karmic significance—perhaps healing ancestral patterns or childhood spiritual wounds. You are being called to transmute grief into empathy, using your past sorrows to better understand others' suffering.
Yes/No Reading Guide
Tendency: No, but with nuance. The Five of Cups suggests current disappointment, while the Six implies the answer may lie in past conditions not currently present. The overall energy is contemplative rather than active—wait until emotional clarity emerges.
Historical & Mythological Context
In the Waite-Smith tradition, Pamela Colman Smith illustrated the Five with a mourner in black, drawing from medieval depictions of melancholy. The Six's children and flowers reference Victorian sentimentality and the Romantic era's idealization of childhood innocence, creating a dialogue between grief and idealized memory.
Meditation & Reflection
Visualize the Five's spilled cups. What sorrow flows from them? Now see the Six's child offering you a cup. What simple, forgotten joy does it contain? How can that memory help you gather the standing cups?
Practical Advice
Allow yourself to fully feel the disappointment symbolized by the Five, then deliberately recall a specific, simple joy from your past—the Six's gift. Carry that memory forward not as escape, but as emotional ballast. The past holds the key to present healing.
Things to Watch
Beware the double Water's potential to drown in feeling. Nostalgia can become escapism if it prevents addressing present realities. The Six's sweetness should not be used to sugarcoat the Five's legitimate pain.
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 →Six of Cups
聖杯六
The Six of Cups shows two children in a garden filled with cups and flowers, representing nostalgia, childhood memories, and innocence. This card often indicates revisiting the past, childhood friends returning to your life, or viewing situations with childlike wonder. It suggests comfort from familiar things and happy memories.
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