King of Cups
The king of cups in the tarot's Minor Arcana: a king with a short sceptre and a great cup, his throne set on the sea. A. E. Waite read it as a responsible man of business, law or the church; art and science.
Meaning
Waite describes the card: "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."
What does the King of Cups mean?
Waite's meanings are "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". His list of additional meanings adds "beware of ill-will on the part of a man of position, and of hypocrisy pretending to help", and reversed, "loss".
In older decks
In Italian packs the suit is coppe, cups: the earliest suit marks, the British Museum's catalogue of 1876 records, were coppe, danari, bastoni and spade, "cups, money, clubs, and swords". Papus reads it as "a fair man, a friend; also a barrister, judge or ecclesiastic".
See also
The Fool, The Magician, The High Priestess, The Empress, The Emperor, The Hierophant.
Sources
- The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, by A. E. Waite, William Rider & Son, London, 1910 (the sacred-texts.com transcription, on the Internet Archive), The Lesser Arcana; Some Additional Meanings of the Lesser Arcana
- The Tarot of the Bohemians, by Papus, Chapman & Hall, London, 1896, translated by A. P. Morton (scan on the Internet Archive), The Divining Tarot, second lesson: the minor arcana
- A Descriptive Catalogue of Playing and Other Cards in the British Museum, by W. H. Willshire, Trustees of the British Museum, London, 1876 (scan on the Internet Archive), General history: the marks of the suits
Last reviewed September 28, 2026 by Rory Hansen. How we research