The number 5 represents that added something that brings the situation out of balance again.  It represents the struggle and challenge of inner and outer growth.  Cups are associated with emotions, love, pleasure in life; matters pertaining to the unconscious, intuition and the inner planes, and the element of water.   This card often symbolizes the need to let go of our emotional connection to something that has passed out of our lives. 

I'm watching Say Anything, a wonderful 80s Cameron Crowe film about two mismatched lovers who make it work despite the odds.  It stars John Cusack and Ione Skye.  It follows the developing relationship between Lloyd Dobler, a decent guy with no idea what he wants to do with his life, and Diane Court, a brain with a hugely successful future ahead of her who never connected with her classmates.  These two go on a date after high school graduation and connect on a deep level, eventually falling in love.  During this time Diane's father is undergoing an IRS investigation and she is preparing to leave for a fellowship in England.  These factors made her decide it made more sense to break up with Lloyd than to continue seeing him.  She gives Lloyd a pen and asks him to write her causing  Lloyd to tell his sister "I gave her my heart, she gave me a pen."  Lloyd is devastated by this breakup, a very 5 of Cups experience.  He can't see anything beyond those spilled cups or broken hearts.  Diane is not heartless or callous about this.  She is just as devastated as Lloyd but she truly believes that this is the best course of action for her right now.  Despite Lloyd's best efforts Diane will not return his phone calls or speak to him, even after the iconic scene where Lloyd stands outside her home holding a boom box playing "In You Eyes" (the song that played the first time they made love).  Diane hears it but will not look out the window.

Diane eventually learns that her father is guilty of the IRS charges.  She feels betrayed and devastated by this and decides she can't trust her father anymore.  She seeks out Lloyd because she needs someone she can trust.  At first Lloyd resists her claims to love him but eventually he responds to her.  Lloyd takes her to visit her father in jail but Diane refuses to get out of the car.  Lloyd talks to her father and explains that he is going to England with Diane.  This infuriates the father.  Lloyd gives him a letter Diane wrote to him and as the father reads it he becomes upset and cannot understand her continued anger towards him.  Diane finally walks in to say goodbye to her father and gives him a pen telling him to write her.  The movie ends with the two of them in the plane taking off for England.

The them of loss and struggle and emotional growth (all 5 of Cups related issues) are woven into this movie.  At the beginning of the movie Diane is the class brain who has almost no emotional connection to her classmates.  Lloyd is a decent guy, likeable and popular, who is not too sure what his future holds.  He is seriously considering becoming a professional kickboxer.  They go on as a bit of a fluke with everyone puzzled and wondering why they're dating.  No one expects it to last.  These two people are two different and seem to be traveling in two very different directions.  And yet their relationship allows them each to grow and expand in expected ways.  This growth is painful and full of struggles - struggles with each other and with outside influences.  They is also loss - Diane looses previously solid and comfortable relationship with her father.  Even if they eventually reconcile their relationship will never be the same again.  In deciding to leave for England with Diane, Lloyd is leaving behind his sister and nephew and his dreams of being a kickboxer.  This story is a reminder that even when there is a happy ending to a love story, there is also loss, pain and struggles.

Perhaps the maiden on the Enchanted 5 of Cups is like Diane.  She has turned down her suitor because she truly feels it is the best decision for them both, not because she does not care for him.  She may feel that she will hold him back or prevent him from achieving his full potential.  Maybe it's a reminder that just because there is a break-up or a loss right now, that does not mean it is the end of the story.  This card is not only about a permanent loss that needs to be healed, it's also about those temporary setbacks the can plague a relationship. 

In some ways this love story reminds me of my husband and I when we first met.  I was "the brain" who was going to college and going to make something of my life.  He was a high school drop-out who spent more time in bars than working.  He was also 8 years older than me.  My parents were not too happy about this relationship.  My friends were rather puzzled by it.  I'm sure his friends were not too thrilled either.  We had our ups and downs; our break-ups and make ups.  We did manage to overcome these struggles and we grew as a couple and as people.  And after 26 years, we're still together.  We're still happy.  That doesn't mean things are perfect - we fight, we disagree about things, we sometimes need to spend time apart.  But at the end of the day we want to be together.  Whatever cups may be spilled behind us, we are able to focus on the two cups that are still full and offer hope and joy.

It's also an appropriate card in honor of Memorial Day.  It's a day for honoring and mourning the loss of those who died fighting for this country.  At the same time we don't want to get so bogged down in those losses that it paralyzes us.  We need to remember them and their sacrifices and not let terrorism win by being willing to give up the freedoms for which they fought.  We are so desperate to cling to the illusion of safety that we willingly give up some of our Constitutionally guaranteed rights.  To do anything less would make a mockery of what the men and women of the armed forces fought and died to protect.