Five of Cups

LossInheritancePatrimonyTransmission

Upright

It is a card of loss, but something remains over; three have been taken, but two are left; it is a card of inheritance, patrimony, transmission, but not corresponding to expectations; with some interpreters it is a card of marriage, but not without bitterness or frustration.

Reversed

News, alliances, affinity, consanguinity, ancestry, return, false projects.

A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1911), Part III §2

The picture

A dark, cloaked figure, looking sideways at three prone cups; two others stand upright behind him; a bridge is in the background, leading to a small keep or holding.

A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1911), Part III §2

Older readings

Generally favourable; a happy marriage; also patrimony, legacies, gifts, success in enterprise. Reversed: Return of some relative who has not been seen for long.

A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1911), Part III §4. Waite collected these and says they often disagree with the main meanings.

Waite wrote in 1911 and some of his meanings show it. Tarot is a tradition of reflection, not a prediction, and no card decides anything for you.