Five of Chalices
Chalices
How This Card Is Derived
Papus gives no separate description of this card. It is derived from his system: Chalices is He (ה), the passive, receptive principle, acting in Briah, the creative world; the number 5 is He of the second series, the passive reaction to what was realized. The meaning below is that combination read out — the passive, receptive principle taken at its 5th term — not a quotation from him.
Upright
The passive reaction to four's satiety, and Papus's ordering says the loss was implicit in the fixing. Three cups spilled, two standing: the proportion is the whole card. This is grief that is accurate rather than total — it does not claim everything is gone, and it is precise that the figure is not looking at what remains. Feeling reacting to a state it did not choose to have fixed.
Reversed
The two standing cups noticed — the same loss, correctly proportioned at last. Or grief kept deliberately, because turning round would mean deciding what to do with what is left.
Correspondences
- Suit
- Chalices — He (ה), Briah, the creative world
- Suit principle
- the passive, receptive principle
- Number
- 5 — He of the second series
- Numeric role
- the passive reaction to what was realized
In a Spread
At the commencement, the matter begins in a loss the querent has not finished counting. In opposition, mourning that is preventing an accurate view of the situation. At equilibrium the whole thing is being held in place by an absence. As the result: loss — partial, specific, and with something still standing.