Pamela Colman Smith · RWS deck
The Minor Arcana
Five of Cups
Geburah in Briah
- Suit
- cups
- Rank
- Five
- World
- Briah
- Station
- Geburah
- Verb
- I create
Geburah, the cut and the boundary
Geburah is severity: the faculty that cuts, bounds and defends. Every Five in the deck shows trouble, and the fit between image and station is the cleanest of any rank.
Upright
Flowing. The cut made real in what you generate: something made is lost, and the question is what still stands. In the world of creation, severity does not take away the self. It takes away a thing the self made, and the loss is allowed to be a loss.
Misdirected. Seeing only what spilled, or refusing to look at the loss.
Reversed
Blocked. The loss is refused, so it cannot be mourned.
Flooded. The loss floods everything and all of it feels lost.
The image
A figure in a dark cloak stands with his head bowed over three spilled cups. Two more cups stand upright behind him, unnoticed. A river runs past, with a bridge leading to a house on the far bank.
Learn how to read Five of Cups in a spread
This page shows you what Five of Cups means. Knowing how to read it — how it shifts next to the other cards, what the reversal is really telling you, and how to turn a spread into a clear answer — is what the RWS Decoded course and book teach, card by card.
