gratitude
Hi G--
The imagery on this Five of Cups shows a man staring, probably mournfully, at three spilt cups, while two perfectly full cups stand behind him.
This Five can symbolize regret, missing someone, disappointment, guilt, and sadness, but the advice of the card here is to remember the two cups that are full.
It's so easy for us to get caught up in things that did not work out the way we wanted them to, and to go over and over in our thoughts what we hoped might occur.
We feel powerless towards what actually happened, and feel powerless toward the future about it. Maybe you wanted a relationship to work, but because of the other person, it could not. Maybe you miss someone who is gone.
Let's talk about sadness. Nobody likes to feel sadness and pain, and a lot of people don't allow themselves to. They embroider these feelings with hate, with anger. As literary great James Baldwin said, “I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain."
Being sad means being vulnerable, it means trusting that you are in process and will be able to release this to move forward. Again, though, this moving forward, especially when it comes to someone you are missing or a situation you regret, is often hard. You think that maybe if you continue to go in circles about your sadness, you will have some sort of power over it. But you should instead be using your power to turn towards what can be done in the present, for yourself.
Try your best to find the lesson, and if you don't want to do that, then cut yourself some slack here. Allow yourself to feel what you are feeling and count your blessings, or remember what moments you were grateful for with either the situation or the person it involved.
Being told to look at the bright side, when you are feeling sad and upset, is not what we usually want to hear. I know it's not what I want to hear, but being told to try to remember what I'm grateful for, or to sift through a situation for what I can be grateful for, does something proactive for one's energy.
The imagery on this Five of Cups shows a man staring, probably mournfully, at three spilt cups, while two perfectly full cups stand behind him.
This Five can symbolize regret, missing someone, disappointment, guilt, and sadness, but the advice of the card here is to remember the two cups that are full.
It's so easy for us to get caught up in things that did not work out the way we wanted them to, and to go over and over in our thoughts what we hoped might occur.
We feel powerless towards what actually happened, and feel powerless toward the future about it. Maybe you wanted a relationship to work, but because of the other person, it could not. Maybe you miss someone who is gone.
Let's talk about sadness. Nobody likes to feel sadness and pain, and a lot of people don't allow themselves to. They embroider these feelings with hate, with anger. As literary great James Baldwin said, “I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain."
Being sad means being vulnerable, it means trusting that you are in process and will be able to release this to move forward. Again, though, this moving forward, especially when it comes to someone you are missing or a situation you regret, is often hard. You think that maybe if you continue to go in circles about your sadness, you will have some sort of power over it. But you should instead be using your power to turn towards what can be done in the present, for yourself.
Try your best to find the lesson, and if you don't want to do that, then cut yourself some slack here. Allow yourself to feel what you are feeling and count your blessings, or remember what moments you were grateful for with either the situation or the person it involved.
Being told to look at the bright side, when you are feeling sad and upset, is not what we usually want to hear. I know it's not what I want to hear, but being told to try to remember what I'm grateful for, or to sift through a situation for what I can be grateful for, does something proactive for one's energy.