King of Cups
The King of Cups is the card of a king enthroned on a stone block floating in a rough sea. Readers traditionally take it as emotional balance, diplomacy and generosity. The Golden Dawn places the court cards of this suit under Water.
- Suit
- Cups (Minor Arcana)
- Golden Dawn
- Water (court card)
- Upright
- emotional balance, diplomacy, generosity
- Reversed
- manipulation, moodiness, suppressed feelings
Upright
Calm on troubled water is the king's whole posture. Readers see emotional balance, diplomacy and a generous, fair-minded leader who stays steady when others are upset. Waite describes a fair man of business, law or divinity, responsible and kind. The card is often read as someone who feels deeply but keeps those feelings in hand, choosing what to share.
Reversed
Hidden currents run under the reversed king. Readers see suppressed feelings, moodiness, or a person who uses emotional skill to manipulate others. It can describe a calm surface covering resentment, or charm used to steer people rather than support them.
In love and at work
Mature, steady love is the usual romantic reading, a partner who stays kind under pressure. Readers apply it to work as wise leadership, mediating a conflict, or a mentor in a caring profession such as medicine, teaching or the law.
In the picture
The king sits on a throne set on a square stone block in the middle of a choppy sea. He holds a cup in one hand and a short scepter in the other, and a fish pendant hangs at his neck. On one side a fish leaps from the waves, and on the other a ship sails.
In a Caelumia profile
When King of Cups comes up upright in a Caelumia reading, it counts toward these themes for that day, alongside the rest of the profile: Harmony, Emotional depth, Leadership.
Sources
- A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910). Waite's own guide to the deck he designed with Pamela Colman Smith, with each card's divinatory meanings.
- Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, Book T: The Tarot (1890s, published by Israel Regardie in The Golden Dawn (1937 to 1940)). The source of the planetary, zodiac and elemental attributions of the cards.
Updated September 28, 2026.
See it in your own profile
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