Five of Cups & Scorpio Season (Oct. 2025)

Tarot of the Cat People by Karen Kuykendall

Greetings Friends,

For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, the days are getting shorter and the air is getting cooler. The sweaters are coming out and the candles are being lit. As the darkness returns, so the veil thins and we are invited once again to feel the unseen. Welcome to Scorpio Season.

 The first decan of Scorpio relates to the Five of Cups in the tarot, a card that evokes a sense of loss. In the simplest terms, the loss is evident in the darkening days and the falling leaves. The last of the summer's harvest being reaped as we prepare once again for winter. It's a time full of beauty and completion when we allow the process to unfold. In readings though, this energy can be met with great disappointment. It often points to a loss that we did not want or choose. Like Scorpio, it's an archetype steeped in emotion and inevitability, but also rebirth. 

In her rich, fantastical style, artist Karen Kuykendall depicts this archetype with warmth and possibility in her deck Tarot of the Cat People. While the couple, and their cat!, appear bereft at their empty cups, there is a wide open window behind them letting in the light. This signals the dawning of the new after the loss of the familiar, whenever we are ready to face it. 

When this card appears in readings, I encourage people to allow room for all their feelings. Grieving is a wise and necessary process in the face of loss and heartache. Bypassing grief does not make it go away but rather compounds the energy in ways that can be harmful. Like Scorpio, the cups suit relates to water, and this card invites us to let all of our emotional waters flow. Then trust that once the rains have passed, there will be new growth to nourish us. So however you relate to the season, remember that the light is always there, even when we must look inside to find it.

with love and all the feelings,

Lisa