Weekly Forecast: September 5-11
When I started turning over our cards for the week I felt the excitement rising: the gloriously fulfilling Ten of Cups followed by the free and celebratory Four of Wands? And then… womp, the grief of the Five of Cups. Certainly not the rising crescendo of joy I’m sure we’d all appreciate. Yet there’s a constructive tug hidden in the melancholy end of our reading, so bear with me. Let’s dive into why the mournful figure of the Five of Cups is actually quite encouraging, more of a section healthy path than an injurious detour.
When I started turning over our cards for the week I felt the excitement rising: the gloriously fulfilling Ten of Cups followed by the free and celebratory Four of Wands? And then… womp, the grief of the Five of Cups. Certainly not the rising crescendo of joy I’m sure we’d all appreciate. Yet there’s a constructive tug hidden in the melancholy end of our reading, so bear with me. Let’s dive into why the mournful figure of the Five of Cups is actually quite encouraging, more of a section healthy path than an injurious detour.
This reading is about how good things - growth, expansion, and particularly meaningful connection - can uncover deep hurts that need to be felt. It’s not the usual narrative where our joy simply multiplies. The Ten of Cups looks like a card of happy endings, but it’s not the happy endings we’re familiar with in film, novels, or television. The ones where, having achieved a romantic partnership or crowning accomplishment, the story ends. The main character is fulfilled and content at long last.
While I’ve seen this card appear in situations where people are idealizing the happy ending, chasing these simplified narratives, this week is about the true expression of the cups suit at its best - open, loving, generous, visionary - and what happens after the happy ending. Where the real, complicated, and meaningful magic happens.
With the Ten of Cups starting the week it’s likely that there’s an abundance of joy and connection available in our lives. Things are coming together, we’re being seen by those around us who really matter, and all sorts of gifts are becoming visible under the resplendent rainbow of cups. Take a moment to be proud of the work you’ve put into your relationships, including the one with yourself. How have you been growing your connections with others, taking risks to both reach out and receive? Love is in the air in all its shapes and forms. Appreciating the love here right now and the beauty it gives to your everyday life is absolutely called for, and it’s likely you can do some celebrating with the ones closet to you.
Speaking of celebrating, The Four of Wands springs from the magic of the Ten of Cups with an exciting invitation to collaborate, create, and innovate. It’s likely there are new partnerships forming, so pay attention to who sees your unique spirit and can work with you to enact your plans, whether they’re romantic, creative, or practical. This card is all about open structures creating just enough scaffolding and freedom for truly great achievements. I always think of a bonfire when I see this card (wands are associated with the element of fire, after all) and how you need to be sure there’s enough room between the branches for oxygen to flow, otherwise the fire gets stifled and snuffed out before it can blossom into something spectacular.
Be aware of the power you hold to shake things up, to make space in your life for that creative oxygen to flow, and the people who are excited to build with you. Don’t be afraid to do things differently or step outside of old patterns and approaches. What’s most important is that you keep things light, flexible, and enjoyable. Work, travel, and activities out and about in the world can all be fun instead of laborious this week. This is also an auspicious card for launching new endeavors, bringing likeminded people together, and partnerships of all shapes and sizes. Follow where your energy is flowing naturally, join hands with people who share your passion, and start creating.
It may be that all this action and abundance grows overwhelming towards the end of the week. Just look at all the happenings in our first two cards - both are full of people and movement. Taking time away will be crucial if we want to recharge our batteries, and most importantly, we’ll likely need the solitude to tend to some complicated feelings triggered by flourishing and being seen.
I’m struck by how the two cups cards show grief hidden within fulfillment. Five is half of ten, and it’s as if the bounty of the Ten of Cups includes within it some of the pain of past losses. Having felt the joys of the early days of the week, we may find ourselves brought back to memories of times when things were not so joyful: when loss swept through our lives; when what we had got swept away and we had to pick up the pieces and move on; when we had to make a difficult choice to choose more for ourselves at the expense of a fading dream or path.
It will be helpful to view these emotions with kindness and see their appearance as a reminder to tend to ourselves, integrate our past with our present, and gain perspective on how far we’ve come. Make time for yourself to feel freely, commemorate any losses or milestones that rise into your awareness, and to thank your grief for being just one of the cups nested in your current experience of abundance. Because the Ten of Cups is about feeling it all and loving life for it, even when it’s hard, and especially since you’ve grown to a point where you can hold it all and love yourself for it.
This week, embrace:
Appreciating and enjoying your close relationships
Relaxing into what’s working out in your life
Abundance! Celebration!
Invigorating creative and romantic partnerships
Thinking outside of the box
Launching new projects
Honoring the grief you carry and the form(s) it’s taking right now
This week, avoid:
Overthinking things (notice we have no swords here??)
Treating grief as a sign of failure
Pushing through burnout… and into more burnout
Get creative:
Ten of Cups: Like all cards in all readings, this will appear on a spectrum for each of us. For some, it’ll be abundantly obvious while for others it may take some sleuthing to uncover. In either case, take a day in the beginning of the week for a little experiment: approach everything as if you already have everything you want. Notice the beauty around you as if it’s just for you. Let yourself really take it in. That’s it. There’s gifts all around you. Now, imagine and act from the idea that even more is coming your way. What does it feel like?
The Four of Wands: I can’t believe I’m about to do this, but behold this entirely cringey scene from the classic cinematic masterpiece that is… Garden State:
I have to admit: this totally captures the energy of the Four of Wands. So, I’m giving you free rein, whether you’d like to channel Natalie Portman’s manic-pixie- dream girl freestyling or not, do something utterly weird and outside the box at least one time this week. (And then tell us about it in the comments below.)
Five of Cups: This week is really asking us to lean into and respect the memories, themes, and feelings brought up by the Five of Cups. Looking at it now, I’m noticing that I’m drawn to the bridge to the left that symbolizes new paths forward after loss. So, I think it would be a beautiful gesture to take a walk by yourself (or imagine being accompanied by your pain, grief, or melancholy) - perhaps even one that has a bridge where you can look down and envision the emotions and memories flowing through you - “water under the bridge” - as you move forward.
Weekly Forecast: March 4-10
Build something beautiful, leave what's gone behind.
Sometimes we don't know we're over something until we've moved past it. It's a bit of emotional jet lag. Life can propel us into whole new timezones and catching up requires some gentle acclimation.
Build something beautiful, leave what's gone behind.
Sometimes we don't know we're over something until we've moved past it. It's a bit of emotional jet lag. Life can propel us into whole new timezones and catching up requires some gentle acclimation.
This week's reading gives us both the magic and splendor of building and choosing grander paths along with the bittersweet realization that we can now see some things that don't work. There's a sense of balance here - between the beauty of what's new and the sadness of moving beyond something we wish could've worked out for the better.
What's more, the joy and satisfaction of the week is upping the contrast. Seeing how good we can have it shows us how insufficient some aspects of our past situation really were. Above all, our challenge is to celebrate the new, keep working towards what we want, and give ourselves plenty of time to process and mourn what we're leaving behind.
But let's get back to the magic, shall we, because this is the true heart of the reading. We're dealing with the Three of Pentacles, a card of diligence and creativity, and The Lovers, whose romantic and complex meaning serves as the major focus of this week.
We can really pat ourselves on the back right now, even if it seems premature or foolhardy. Whether we can see it clearly or not, the choices we've been making to shape our lives are bringing us towards a very new and somewhat wild change. The Lovers shows us the boldness and vision that's required to make a choice just for us. Listening to our desires, taking them seriously, and then daring to do something about it? It's not small stuff, that's for sure.
Fortunately, we're taking baby steps towards this goal, hence the grounded Three of Pentacles. This shows us that any work we do in real life is paving the way for future openness and opportunity. Which is a nice way to balance the sometimes-intimidating nature of The Lovers.
So stay your course as you keep at it this week. Trust in the process and know that the grand vision isn't necessarily a specific goal, but a situation where you feel as in love with your life as the passion shown in The Lovers. This can come with a great deal of surprise - we're often shocked by what really gets us going! - and is completely and utterly centered around what we want, societal norms or pre-packaged life trajectories be damned.
Make room for the sadness, too. When we realize life can be bigger than we thought, the smallness we're leaving behind is especially tender and poignant. Feeling it connects us with our past experiences even more so that we can keep expanding and know the pieces of life that are no longer for us.
Weekly Forecast: February 26 - March 4
Processing our emotions can get complicated, especially when it comes to the sticky ones. Sadness, grief, regret, disappointment - all of these don't match up with the indefatigable optimism we're supposed to embody. We're taught to embrace a positive spin to the point that we gloss over these feelings, wanting to seem put together, wise, or "evolved," whatever that means.
As a result, we have the unfortunate tendency to hide these feelings, sometimes from our selves, and especially from others. We can see this in the intense solitude of the Five of Cups where a person is facing towards a trio of spilled cups. Yes, we do need personal time to process our feelings, but remaining fixed in this state and cut off from outside support and help leaves us isolated. Instead, once the dust has settled, we could connecting with others, lifting our eyes from the hurt and seeking comfort and a new path forward.
In this reading, the Five of Cups, a mournful card showing the immediacy of loss, transitions almost seamlessly into the loving connection of the Two of Cups. It's as if the clouds in the Five have cleared away to reveal a velvety expanse of night sky. We can find community in our sticky feelings - commiseration, inspiration, and love - if we just reach out for it. A dark hour is also a time when stars can shine brightly.
This week carries a deep undercurrent of personal processing. We're looking to our past to address current feelings of loss or grief. This can come at many different levels - either something smaller reminding us of a past loss or having to contend with something upsetting in the here and now. We come into this week with a full knowledge of the situation, so there's no need to wait for the other shoe to drop. Sometimes even the change of the seasons has us reflecting back to what happened at this time in years past. That horizon stretches far back, but it doesn't go nearly as far as the wide open infinity of the night sky.
We have to turn around and contend with our present to get to the community and connection of the Two of Cups. We have this bravery in spades and are using it. These small acts of reaching out are important and require us to be vulnerable. Recognizing this and being proud of our courage is an important part of navigating this tricky terrain. When we do this we're saying, "I've had enough of just processing these feelings alone, who else is out there?" And just looking at this central card highlights the beauty of friendship. There are people waiting to gently direct our eyes to the sky when we're tempted to look at our spilled cups.
This doesn't mean glossing over or "pepping up" our complicated feelings. The Hermit shows us that connecting with others - sharing our difficult emotions - is giving us the guidance to truly understand them. The introspection of The Hermit is much deeper and aligned with our personal development. We still need that sacred time alone to navigate our feelings, but with the guidance of The Hermit we're traveling to new and unexpected places. At the root of our emotions is an important truth and we need our friends, family, lovers, and support network to help direct us there. Sometimes we can't see ourselves as well as they can. With their support we can find a different path to travel, lit not only by our past experiences, but by our greater goals and beliefs as well.
Exploring the Minor Arcana: The Fives
In this series we'll be diving into the world of the Minor Arcana. Each segment will group the cards by number where we can engage in their themes and differences. For all the posts in the installment, click here.
Just looking at these fives gives us a sense of the tension they hold. Scenes of loss and struggle jump out immediately - there's not much subtlety to these scenarios and we can easily infer their meanings with just one glance. The fives are indeed all about conflict; the moments when we're first put to the test and are forced to struggle with what's before us.
Interestingly, these cards also mark a middle place. As the halfway point of the numbered cards in the Minor Arcana they show us how challenge is unavoidable and perhaps even necessary to propel us onto the next stage of our journey. With this being said there's a lot of trial and error happening in the fives. Our first attempts aren't always the best or most graceful. In fact, as we can see clearly here, they're often heavy-handed and foolish. Yet we can't learn without making our mistakes, and nowhere is the sense of actively grappling with a challenge more present than in these cards.
Explore In-Depth Minor Arcana Meanings
The Five of Wands shows an almost endearing scene of chaos. Five people struggle with five wands. It's unclear what they're trying to accomplish. Are they attempting to create a structure together or is each person simply trying to stand their wand upright? This card illustrates the confusion that comes with mindless action and ambition, especially when it's motivated by self-interest. Instead of communicating or collaborating, the figures in this card are flailing.
For the Five of Swords represens situations where someone has gotten carried away with their ego. Using their words and actions to further their own needs with disregard for others has left a wake of hurt feelings and confusion in their wake. This card can be seen as a Pyrrhic victory. Though the person in the foreground may not realize it yet, their actions, although they may seem justified or even celebratory in the moment, have hurt and alienated them more than helped their cause.
The Five of Cups is a deep card that almost invites us to come to a full stop. A loss has been suffered and is being felt acutely in the present moment. We see a grieving figure in a dark cloak looking downcast at three spilled cups. The emotion from this loss is consuming and unavoidable. Feeling through it, however, will ultimately clear the way to a new path forward, and two full cups wait to help them along on their journey.
Finally, the Five of Pentacles brings us to the realm of material suffering. Here two beggars walk through the snow outside what appears to be a church. Without shelter or adequate clothing they're forced to focus on the immediate moment, pushing through the storm motivated only by their connection to each other and hope for something more. This card deals with issues of financial insecurity, fear of suffering, and lack of stability.
While not a sunny bunch of cards, the fives invite us to look at our challenges as turning points. These are moments where we must prove our mettle and earn our wisdom. Though not simple to do, the lessons that come from these cards add meaning and weight to our accomplishments and life itself. What are your thoughts on the fives? Share in the comments below!
