14. King of Cups
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Rank: King
Card Title: King of Cups
Esoteric Title: Prince of the Chariot of the Waters
Astrological Attribution: Scorpio (fixed water)
Decans: Death
Dates & Timing: 20° Libra to 20° Scorpio
Corresponding Trump: October 13 to November 12
Elemental Attributions: Air (hot, wet) of Water (cold, wet)
Elemental Combination: The Intellect transforms the Emotions
Qabalistic World: Tipareth in Briah
Translation of World: The Beauty of Creation
Suit Color: Cups - Blue
Keywords: Unconditional Love, Good Father, Nurturing, Diplomatic, Kind, Sensitive, Nurturing, Reliable, Generous, Worldly, Respected, Emphatic, Moody, Emotional, Respected, Home-Loving, Considerate, Cranky, Crabby, Mild, Generous, Kind, Protective.
Ill-Dignified:Emotionally Overboard, Spoils & Smothers Loved Ones, Clingy, Maudlin, Sentimental, Heavy Drinker, Crafty, Hides Emotions, Selfish, Deceptive.
Interpretation
Temperament: Unconditional Love, Good Father, Nurturing, Diplomatic, Kind, Sensitive, Nurturing, Reliable, Generous, Worldly, Respected, Emphatic, Moody, Emotional, Respected, Home-Loving, Considerate, Cranky, Crabby, Mild, Generous, Kind, Protective.
Professions: Minister, Legal Counselor, Teacher, Negotiator, Cook, Homemaker, Family Man, Could Be Client Or Client’s Father, Good Friend.
Starting: The decision to start a new relationship may indicate a man deciding to propose or just finally motivating himself to approach a special someone. This is a new love, but it is a mature love, one that is determined. Can also indicate a man motivated to be a new and better provider, father and husband.
Meanings: Need for good professional advice. Activities that around the home. Need to surrender to beloved ones. Telecommuting or home business. Need to be a skilled negotiator. Enjoying People. Helping People.
Reversed Interpretation
Temperament: Emotionally Overboard, Spoils & Smothers Loved Ones, Clingy, Maudlin, Sentimental, Heavy Drinker, Crafty, Hides Emotions, Selfish, Deceptive.
Meanings: Deception from man who keeps his feelings hidden. Be on guard against manipulation. Financial or legal matters. Double-dealing or loss. Avoid disagreement. Hidden violence. Danger of Drug Addiction. Easily Seduced. Avoid entanglements with this man. Badly treated and mislead.
Rider-Waite Imagery
The King is Masculine, Mature and Stable. Court cards can represent your personality, someone close to you and situations you find yourself in. Usually they describe all three at once.
The King of Cups sits on a grey (wisdom) throne. He is wearing a blue (emotions, observing) gown, yellow (mind, intellect) cloak with red (desire, action) trim, green (growth, love) shoes. His orb and scepter is a cup and lotus wand. His crown is made of lotus flowers.
The King of Cups represents you. He is emotional stable and supportive. He cares and provides for the people unconditionally. Your guidance for spiritual work should be a choice that allows you to nurture and support people emotionally. Kings are teachers. You should look for areas that allow you to teach people how to take care of themselves emotionally.
The Pictorial Key to the Tarot by Arthur Edward Waite (1911)
He holds a short sceptre in his left hand and a great cup in his right; his throne is set upon the sea; on one side a ship is riding and on the other a dolphin is leaping. The implicit is that the Sign of the Cup naturally refers to water, which appears in all the court cards. Divinatory Meanings: Fair man, man of business, law, or divinity; responsible, disposed to oblige the Querent; also equity, art and science, including those who profess science, law and art; creative intelligence. Reversed: Dishonest, double-dealing man; roguery, exaction, injustice, vice, scandal, pillage, considerable loss.
4 Some Additional Meanings of the Lesser Arcana
King.–Beware of ill-will on the part of a man of position, and of hypocrisy pretending to help. Reversed: Loss.
The Recurrence of Cards in Dealing
In the Natural Position: 4 Kings = great honour; 3 Kings = consultation; 2 Kings = minor counsel.
Reversed: 4 Kings = celerity; 3 Kings = commerce 2 Kings = projects.
The Tarot of the Bohemians by Papus; tr. A. P Morton, [1896]
Signification of the Four Series of Minor Arcana in the Divining Tarot
CUPS. Preservation. Love. Instruction.
KING OF CUPS. A fair man, a friend. This card also represents a barrister, judge, or ecclesiastic. It symbolizes a Bachelor.
The Tarot by S.L. MacGregor Mathers [1888]
Meanings of the Cards
36. King of Cups.–A fair Man, Goodness, Kindness, Liberality, Generosity; R. A Man of good position, but shifty in his Dealings, Distrust, Doubt, Suspicion.
Additional Remarks
The following additional remarks may be serviceable to the to the inexperienced Cartomancer. They are chiefly taken from Etteilla.
The Court-Cards, and especially the Kings and Queens, may be taken to represent persons; in this case their additional meaning should not be read. The Swords represent very dark people; Pentacles, those not so dark; Cups, rather fair people; Wands or Sceptres, those much fairer, and so on. Many Wands together might signify feasting, many Cups lovemaking, Swords quarrelling and trouble, Coins or Pentacles money.
Where the mode of reading the cards requires that the person consulting should be represented, he should take one of the Kings to represent himself, according to his complexion. If a lady consults the cards, let her take one of the Queens; if she be rather fair, the Queen of Cups; if she be very fair, the Queen of Wands or Sceptres. If the inquirer be quite a youth or a boy, let him take one of the Knights; if a very young girl, let her take the Knave, etc. Etteilla’s plan was to take two of the Keys for Significators, that answering to the Pope for a man, that answering to the High Priestess for a woman; but I do not think this is so well. The worst of Etteilla’s system is that he so completely destroys the meanings of the Keys in his attempted rearrangement of them, as to make them practically useless for higher occult purposes.
Three Books of Occult Philosophy by Henry Cornelius Agrippa
Picatrix the Goal of the Wise by Ghayat Al-akim
Book "T" The Tarot
The Four Princes
These Princes are Figures seated in Chariots, and thus borne forward. They represent the Vau Forces of the Name in each suit: the Mighty Son of the King and Queen, who realizes the influence of both scales of Force. A Prince, the son of a King and Queen, yet a Prince of Princes, and a King of Kings: an Emperor whose effect is at once rapid (though not so swift as that of the Queen) and enduring. It is, therefore, symbolized by a Figure borne in a Chariot, and clothed in Armour. Yet is his power vain and illusionary, unless set in Motion by his Father and Mother.
Princes and Queens shew almost always actual men and women connected with the matter.
XI. The Prince of the Chariot of the Waters:
King of Cups
A WINGED Kingly Figure with winged crown seated in a chariot drawn by an eagle. On the wheel is the symbol of a scorpion. The eagle is borne as a crest on his crown, cuirass and buskins. General attire like King of Wands. Beneath his chariot is the calm and stagnant water of a lake. His armour resembles feathers more than scales. He holds in one hand a lotus, and in the other a cup, charged with the sigil of his scale. A serpent issues from the cup, and has its head tending down to the waters of the lake. He is subtle, violent, crafty and artistic; a fierce nature with calm exterior. Powerful for good or evil but more attracted by the evil if allied with apparent Power or Wisdom.
- If ill dignified, he is intensely evil and merciless.
- He rules from 20 Degree Libra to 20 Degree Scorpio.
- Air of Water
Prince and Emperor of Nymphs or Undines.
Often the General signification of the Majority of a particular suit and of the particular signification of the either 3 of 4 cards of a sort in a reading:
- A Majority of Cups Pleasure, merriment.
- A Majority of Court Cards Society, meetings of many persons.
- 4 Princes Meetings with the great.
- 3 Princes Rank and honour.
