After a difficult 2020, the ramifications of which have spilled over with us into 2021, the key to navigating this new year lies in the realm of emotions, imagination, and dreams with the Five of Cups. As a five, this card is not comfortable or cosy because it disturbs the stability of the previous number four, shoving you out of your comfort zone and into the inevitability of change. The only thing that doesn’t change is change right?

As the subtitle suggests, when you lose the comfort and pleasure brought by anything you love, whether that’s people, jobs, relationships, ways of life, or spiritual beliefs, you can be overwhelmed by loss and disappointment.

Where you find yourself doesn’t look at all as you imagined, dreamed or expected, and with that emotional security stripped away you can feel empty and often hopeless.

The first and most important thing is to acknowledge your disappointment and loss, wherever that lies, and to accept the reality of your current situation. Denial doesn’t get you anywhere and emotions, like anything else, if not allowed to flow and move will only stagnate and bog you down in the past. So there is grieving to be allowed and expressed this year, some of it incredibly deep and personal, before you can move forward.

I’m sure there are many who don’t want to accept the reality that life has changed irrevocably and can never go back to exactly how it was. But if you spend all your time wishing for what used to be, you’ll never be able to fully appreciate and enjoy what you still have right in front of you. It is the bittersweet reality and beauty of life as a human on our planet, that nothing lasts forever and everything shifts and evolves. It is a vital skill to be able to be fully present with loss and yet to accept change; if we can’t then we are dead, in truth, well before our physical body gives out.

Speaking of which, death is a theme I saw highlighted starkly last year, especially our fear and yet denial of the reality of it. COVID meant that for a while we could all sense its cold finality hovering, a spectre just out of sight yet uncomfortably and undeniably present. Death and change remind us we aren’t in control of everything and that, try as you might, you can’t hold chaos and disorder permanently at bay. It’s a universal law; it’s life itself that continually recycles and reshapes energy and this will continue to be felt throughout 2021.

After the grief though, there is always the promise of transformation and renewal – see the butterfly waiting to take flight beneath the foetid water, under the bottom cup? Love and pleasure will return when you’re willing to move towards it. So that’s what you’re being called to do this year; to embrace the emotional lessons of all that has happened and will happen and use them to help imagine a different future. You are not the same, the circumstances you find yourself in are not the same, and so you need to re-examine your relationships and dreams in the light of these inner changes, so you can make choices and changes that reflect this growth externally. Continue to ask yourself: What realisations have I gained from these extraordinary events and happenings? Where have I been ignoring the warnings of my own inner voice? What no longer feels emotionally fulfilling or nourishing for me? Where have I been clinging to the security of the secure and familiar even when it hasn’t been the healthiest option for me?

Something which I feel is incredibly important to remember as you adjust to change is that the underlying cause of disappointment is unmet expectation. You can only be disappointed when things don’t live up to your expectations. Within the context of change in particular, it’s very rare that you get something right first time although most people I know demand it of themselves. Mistakes are an inevitable and extremely valuable part of the learning and refining change process; mistakes enable you to see what works and what doesn’t and so do it better next time. Similarly, it’s a truth that other people, because they are human and imperfect, are always going to let you down at some point.

So the guidance of the five of cups is to keep it real this year, especially with your expectations of situations and people. Be compassionate and forgiving with yourself and others as things continue to shift, and don’t get too attached to specific outcomes (which may not be clearly visible for many years yet, especially on a global scale). Nor should you expect external situations or authorities to provide happiness and fulfilment for you. Consciously look for something every single day to rejoice in and be grateful for, and choose to live your life as a reflection of how you would like the world to be, moment by moment. In this deceptively simple choice you embrace positive change that needs no impressive result or assured outcome to justify its very real power.

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