5 Cups Ritual...(Wiccan?)?

Question

for the Harvest moon, my grove and i went to an open circle that was part 2 of a 5 part ritual. It was called "The Cup Of Sadness"
i thought that it was a very good ritual and it actually helped me with my yearly depression.

Anyhow the question is for the Wiccan folk, What is the history of this ritual, where did it come from and what are the intended results of the entire 5 cup rituals.

the cup of Joy
the cup of Sadness
the cup of Anger
the cup of love
(i cannot remember what the 5th cup was)
but they are donig the ritual evenly spaces out over a year and a day as 5 seperate rituals.
any info will be very appreciated and helpful.

thanks in advance.

Answer 1

The founders of Wicca were Gerald Gardner, Doreen Valiente, and Alex Sanders, I know of nothing in their teaching about such a ritual, which, of course, doesn't mean there isn't one. I've also never heard of any rituals involving a five-fold repetition over the course of a year. Wiccans tend to work in fours, The four elements, the four phases of the moon (the Esbats), the four Low Feasts (balance and extreme-equinoxes and solstices), the Four High Feasts (Imbolc, Beltain, Lughnasadh, and Samhain), the four form Goddess, the four Watchtowers, the Four Directions, the only use of a five is in the pentagram which was introduced to Europe from Persia by the Greek Religious leader Pythagoras around 320bce, and adopted by Gardner around 1939. The pentagram in Wicca represents the body, the four elements + the spirit binding them together and making them whole, hence the surrounding circle. Wicca also tends to be dualistic, Goddess and God, Light and Dark, Joy and Sadness, Love and Hate, Acceptance and Rejection, never anything without it's opposite, so I'm not sure what the philosophical basis for a five step pattern would be. Wish I could be more help, none of my reference works contain such a ritual, and an Internet search turned up nothing either.