This morning the Sun crossed into Scorpio at about twenty to eleven UK time. From today, Friday 23 October, until 1 November, the first ten days of Scorpio belong to the Five of Cups. The suit has changed. Libra’s three decans were the swords: the Two of Swords on 23 September, the Three of Swords on 3 October, and the Four of Swords on 13 October. Those cards weighed things, cut what needed cutting, and then rested. Scorpio is water, and the cups take the sky for the first time on this calendar. Across Scorpio’s three decans the suit will run Five, Six, Seven.
The Reading
Mars in Scorpio rules the Five of Cups. Mars is the planet of force and heat; Scorpio is the deep water sign. The old title for the card is Loss in Pleasure. Something that was good has been interrupted, and the interruption still has heat in it. October did its cutting. The swords finished their work. Now the feeling begins, and this particular sadness is not the gentle kind. Anger at what spilled can sit right next to the sadness, and the card allows both.
Maybe yours shows a figure in a long dark cloak standing with head bowed before three cups knocked over, their wine spilled on the ground, two cups still upright behind the figure, a river, a bridge, and a house or castle on the far side. Maybe it shows a dark-haired woman in a black hooded cloak kneeling on wet flagstones at the edge of a stormy sea at dusk, rain falling, a hand pressed to her chest, tears on her face, three gold cups spilled at her knees with wine pooling on the stone, and two more cups hanging in the sky over her shoulder, one still pouring, exactly where she is not looking. In every version the same fact holds: cups have spilled in front of someone who is looking down, and other cups stand behind or above them that they have not turned to see.
Three spilled, two standing. The count of what is gone is real. The count of what is left is also real. Most of us only do the first count. The figure is not wrong to kneel. The card does not say get up. Kneeling is the work of these days. You can do that work properly across ten days and still have time to turn before the Six of Cups arrives on 2 November. The Six is the memory card, the kinder one.
On 26 August the water signs drew this exact card for their shadow work, in the middle of Virgo season. The advice then was to name the spilled cup in one plain sentence, feel it properly once, then turn for what is left standing. On Wednesday the water signs drew the Eight of Cups: leave the full cups where they stand and take the walk uphill. The suit opens with a card the water signs already know, now handed to everyone. Water signs have been in this territory since August. Everyone else is a visitor for ten days. The water signs can show the rest of us how it is done: feel it fully once, then turn.
The full moon in Taurus falls on Monday 26 October, three days into these ten. A bright night for seeing exactly what spilled.
One Practical Thing for the Days Ahead
Write three things that spilled this autumn, honestly, one line each. Then turn the page, literally, and write two that are still standing. Keep both pages. Before the Six of Cups on 2 November, read the second page once out loud.
Why the Five of Cups, Why Now?
The year splits into thirty-six slices of about ten days called decans. Each decan has one numbered suit card assigned to it. Scorpio’s first decan belongs to the Five of Cups. Its ruler is Mars in Scorpio, and the Golden Dawn called the card Loss in Pleasure. You can read more on the Five of Cups card meaning page. The whole year is mapped on the tarot calendar.
Monday brings the full moon in Taurus. Wednesday is the earth signs’ reading, for growth and shadow work. On 2 November the Six of Cups opens the next decan. Kneel if you need to. The two cups are still standing when you turn.