Tarot Card Combination
The Devil+Five of Cups
惡魔 & 聖杯五
A profound entanglement with material or emotional chains that obscure the true nature of loss. You stand before spilled cups, mourning what you believe is gone, while the Devil's shadow suggests the real prison is your attachment to the narrative of scarcity and limitation. The blend of Earth and Water creates a swamp of stagnation—feeling stuck in the mud of regret.
This pairing speaks to a bondage that is as much psychological as it is circumstantial. The Devil represents addiction to patterns, beliefs, or material comforts that you know are unhealthy. The Five of Cups shows you grieving the consequences, yet fixated on the three spilled cups while ignoring the two full ones behind you. The Earth of The Devil grounds your chains in reality—debts, toxic routines, codependency. The Water of the Five of Cups drowns you in the emotion of 'what could have been.' Together, they create a powerful illusion: that your pain is permanent and your limitations are absolute. You are being asked to see the choice you still possess, even in darkness.
Elemental Analysis
Earth (The Devil) and Water (Five of Cups) combine to form mud—a dense, sticky, emotional mire. Earth provides the structure of your limitations (habits, contracts, physical dependencies), while Water provides the deep well of regret, nostalgia, and sadness that makes those structures feel permanent. This is not a creative blend but a stagnating one, where feelings solidify into rigid beliefs about what is possible.
Numerology Insights
The sum, 20, reduces to 2 (2+0=2), echoing The High Priestess's number. This hints that the void you feel (the '0' in 20) holds infinite potential. The 20 signifies the end of a major cycle of limitation (The Devil's 15 + 5), a moment of pregnant pause before a new understanding (The High Priestess) can be born from the emotional wreckage.
Reversal Meanings
The Devil Reversed
The Devil reversed suggests a conscious effort to break free from addictions, toxic patterns, or limiting beliefs. The chains are loosening, but the memory of their weight remains. This is a rebellion against external control or a moment of reclaiming your personal power, though the process may be messy and incomplete.
Five of Cups Reversed
Five of Cups reversed indicates a turning point in grief. The gaze finally lifts from the spilled cups toward the two that remain. Acceptance begins to dawn, allowing you to receive support and recognize the resources you still possess. The emotional floodwaters start to recede.
Both Cards Reversed
With both reversed, a powerful liberation is underway. You are actively rejecting old chains (Devil Rx) and choosing to engage with hope and what remains (5 of Cups Rx). This is a double release—from external bondage and internal sorrow—paving a muddy but determined path toward emotional and practical recovery.
Spiritual Guidance
This is a potent lesson in spiritual materialism—becoming attached to specific outcomes, gurus, or rigid belief systems (The Devil) and then grieving when they fail you (Five of Cups). Your spiritual progress feels blocked by earthly desires or old wounds. The union asks you to confront the shadowy parts of your psyche you've chained up and to grieve authentically, not performatively. True liberation begins by acknowledging the prison door is unlocked.
Yes/No Reading Guide
A strong, resonant No. The energy is one of entrapment, mourning, and obscured choices. Any 'yes' would likely bind you further to an undesirable situation or deepen a sense of loss. Now is a time for release, not commitment.
Meditation & Reflection
Sit with the image of the two full cups behind you. Feel their weight, their presence. What do they contain? Now, imagine the spilled cups evaporating, their contents returning to the sky as rain, not loss.
Daily Affirmation
"I release what binds me and receive what sustains me."
Practical Advice
Stop staring at the spill. Physically turn your body away from the source of your regret. Test the chains; pull on one. You may find it is made of paper-mâché beliefs. Inventory what you have, not what you've lost.
Things to Watch
Beware of mistaking comfortable misery for safety. Your pain is a signpost, not a home. The greatest danger is becoming fond of your own chains.
Individual Card Meanings
The Devil
惡魔
The Devil shows two figures chained at the feet of a horned beast, yet their chains are loose—they could leave if they chose to. This card represents the bondage we create for ourselves through attachment, addiction, materialism, or unhealthy relationships. It asks you to examine what holds you captive. What patterns, beliefs, or desires have become your prison? The Devil is not about external evil but about our shadow self—the parts of ourselves we deny or project onto others. When this card appears, it is time to honestly face your attachments and ask whether they serve your highest good or keep you in chains.
View full meaning →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.
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