Knight of Cups
The knight of cups in the tarot's Minor Arcana: a graceful rider in a winged helmet, riding quietly with a cup. A. E. Waite read it as arrival, approach, advances and invitation.
Meaning
Waite's Key to the Tarot describes the design: "Graceful, but not warlike; riding quietly, wearing a winged helmet, referring to those higher graces of the imagination which sometimes characterize this card. He too is a dreamer, but the images of the side of sense haunt him in his vision."
What does the Knight of Cups mean?
Waite's meanings are "arrival, approach—sometimes that of a messenger; advances, proposition, demeanour, invitation, incitement"; reversed, "trickery, artifice, subtlety, swindling, duplicity, fraud". His list of additional meanings adds "A visit from a friend, who will bring unexpected money to the Querent", and reversed, "irregularity".
In older decks
Italian packs call the suit coppe, cups; the British Museum's catalogue of 1876 lists it among the suit marks of the earliest cards. Papus reads it as "A young fair man, a friend. The young man loved. The Lover."
Read next
- Next in Tarot cardsQueen of CupsThe queen of cups in the tarot's Minor Arcana: a dreamy queen enthroned, looking into her cup. A. E. Waite read it as a devoted, honest woman, loving intelligence and vision.
- The same shape in Andean and Inca symbolsTumi (ceremonial knife)A ceremonial knife with a half-moon blade from the north coast of ancient Peru. The gold tumis of the Sicán (Lambayeque) culture carry a god on the handle, often identified as Naylamp, the dynasty’s mythical founder. The Tumi de Oro was declared a pre-Columbian symbol of Peru in 1981.
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
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols formed from curves and waves, letters and numbers or squares and rectangles.
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed September 30, 2026. How we research
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