The Images of the Tarot Oracle in Psychic Readings

The Five of Cups

The appearance of the image of Five Cups is never welcome, unless occasionally when it appears in its reversed position. It is the image of regret, and it describes all manner of loss, setback, disappointment, disillusionment, and despairing defeat. But there is something of a self-imposed aspect to this emblem of pain and suffering. Is regret ever a healthy emotion? Yes, when it leads directly to making amends for wrongs done, but even then only with the accompaniment of forgiveness. Our problem arises when we focus excessively on our own troubles. A poverty-stricken woman named Gotami lost her son to illness, and she appealed to the Buddha for medicine in her suffering. He said to her, "Go enter the city, make the rounds of the entire city, beginning at the beginning, and in whatever house no one has ever died, from that house fetch tiny grains of mustard seed." Of course, she was unable to find even one solitary seed, for death is the common lot of all. Shakespeare put a comic light on this, in his "Tempest," when he said that "misery loves company." But the point is not merely to laugh at the comfort we take commiseration. It is rather to accept with compassion our own and others suffering, and from there to move on to focus on the constant renewal of life in the joyful warmth of bright and sunny days.

A client asked for an overview of his situation, seeking help in the state of deep depression into which he had fallen. We drew a variety of images that enabled us to give him some insight into some of the precipitating factors of his depression. We also sensed that medical advice from a qualified professional would be of some immediate help to him, and so we suggested that he investigate various medicinal strategies in traditional as well as alternative medicine, as well as the potential benefits of nutritional supplementation, so as to uncover the right protocol in his particular case. But, most important, with the appearance of the image of Five Cups in its reversed position, we were able to assure him that his depression would soon be relieved, and that he should have faith in the promise of a much brighter future that would greet him without fail in due time. We did not tell him this only in order to be encouraging. When a man is headed toward greater suffering in the future, surely it is best to let him know, so that possibly he will make changes in his life that can avert that suffering. In all of our Readings, we take as our model, the claim made by Confucius in his own readings from the I Ching Oracle, when he said, "I do not invent, I merely convey."