Knight of Cups – Tarot Meaning Deep Dive

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Welcome to part 7 of my 16 part series Meet the Court Cards – each week we will hang out with ONE court card and dive deeply into the symbols, personality traits, talents and dark side. This is similar to my Major Arcana Meanings Deep Dive series, but we’ll also explore how each court card acts in the context of love, work and money.

I’ll give you specific ways to embody this card as well as some journalling questions to help you connect with this card on a more personal level ?

Let’s dive into the Knight of Cups – the most romantic and idealistic knight in the Tarot, he’ll easily win your affection, but just don’t try to tie him down!

Sit back, relax and discover the secrets, wisdom and talents of this Knight…

Element = water (emotions, feelings, relationships, flow)

Keywords/Personality traits:

Emotional, sensitive, romantic, artistic, creative, idealistic, intuitive, emotionally expressive, follows his heart

Symbols:

cup = expectation, an empty cup to be filled (searching)

wings (helmet and feet) = his flighty nature (changes his mind easily and can change direction quickly)

fish = his ability to traverse the emotional realms but sometimes feels like a fish out of water

desert (with river) = thirsting for something

water = flow, emotional depth

Talents:

The Knight of cups is emotionally perceptive and highly intuitive, always listening to his heart, even if it sometimes leads him astray. People are naturally drawn to open up to him and share their feelings, problems and secrets, which he loves!

He’s creative and highly artistic, which a knack for acting and drama – he’s able to tap into powerful emotions and express them in such a way as to make the audience truly feel them.

With his matinee idol good looks and his ultra romantic persona, he’s easy to fall madly in love with. He’s warm and affectionate with his love interests, fawning over them until they feel like the most special person alive.

At a party…

You’ll find him playing bartender, mixing fancy drinks and making sure everyone has a good time. He’s highly social and will float around the room, chatting with everyone. If he’s a recovering alcoholic, you’ll find him cornering anyone who will listen to him ramble on about his “journey” to recovery – he loves a twelve step group!

People are naturally drawn to him and sensing his non-judgmental attitude, want to tell him all their opinions, fears, desires, secrets and problems. This suits the Knight of Cups just fine, as there’s nothing he loves more than a deep conversation.

In work…

You’ll often find him in artsy professions that allow him to perform such as a musician, actor, etc. He also makes a great bartender, hairdresser, nurse or sexual healer – basically any role where people will open up and share themselves with him. He longs to touch people’s lives in a deeper way, whether it’s through service oriented work or artistic endeavours.

In the office, he’s the co-worker that everyone goes to with personal problems, since he’s such a good shoulder to cry on. He’s also prone to office romance and affairs of the heart. Whenever a Knight of Cups enters the workplace, things are sure to get a whole lot more interesting!

He doesn’t stay in any one job for too long, preferring adventure and a change of pace. He quickly stagnates if he can’t “go with the flow” and switch up his career every so often.

In love…

The Knight of Cups is the ultimate romantic and falls in love easily – he loves showering his lover with chocolates, flowers, candlelit bubble baths and romantic dinners. He’s caring and nurturing and sees sex as a healing act. But don’t let his romantic gestures and deep emotions fool you – he falls out of love just as easily as he falls into it!

He makes his partner feel like the most special person in the room – they feel seen and heard with him and want to open up and give him everything…yet once they do he tends to lose interest. Why is this? Two reasons….

1) He’s got all kinds of romantic ideals that he projects onto his lovers, ending up disappointed and disillusioned when they don’t live up to his ridiculous expectations. He will feel emotionally wounded when this happens and use it as an excuse to end things and wander over to a new lover.

2) He’s perpetually seeking an adventure of the heart – he loves the newfound rush of romantic connection but isn’t yet adept at keeping that flame burning past the initial stages. Thus, he’s a serial dater who puts monogamy on a pedestal but then feels trapped and stagnant once he’s in a committed relationship.

At once deep yet shallow, his depth of feeling doesn’t mean as much to him as it does to others, since it comes to him so easily. Always looking for someone to “fill his cup”, he becomes restless as soon as he achieves what he thought he longed for.

In money…

This Knight loves to spend frivolously! He wants all kinds of things and if he has the money, he buys it, with little restraint or sensibility. He might get lucky and strike it rich as a famous musician or actor, but always finds a way to blow his money on stupid stuff.

Any financial investments he makes tend to be a disaster because he mainly makes decisions based on emotions. If he used his head more when making investments, he’d be better off.

However, being a Knight in the realm of water, he’s blessed with the gift of flow – money flows to him easily and effortlessly but also flows away from him just as easy. For this reason, he’s not uptight about money and concerns himself more with emotional highs and romantic pursuits.

This Knight thrives on…

Adventure, a change of pace and of course, romance! He loves being in emotionally charged environments where there’s a certain level of DRAMA and he needs to be able to express his emotions in a creative way like through poetry, performance art or music.

Want to grab this Knight’s attention? Start babbling about Ayahuasca trips, past lives, aliens, Tarot – basically anything mystical or spiritual – and he’ll be hanging on your every word. He loves that shit.

He can’t stand…

Being stuck in one place for too long. Since he’s from the suit of cups/water, he needs to be able to go with the flow and anything that hinders him in doing that will drive him crazy.

He also can’t stand people who hold back and hide their true feelings, although paradoxically this is exactly the kind of person he ends up being romantically attracted to. A cold, tight lipped woman will fire up his loins like nothing else. Go figure!

Dark Side of the Knight of Cups…

The Knight of Cups can be one of those sleazy “spiritual” types who will drum up a bullshit story of past life connection to get you into bed with him. He’s not above saying silly stuff like “my angels told me to sleep with you – it’s fate,” while massaging his mala bead necklace and squinting. Yes, he’s that kind of guy!

Since emotional bonding comes to him so easily, it doesn’t really mean much to him – he can make a deep connection with someone one day and then have a “change of heart” the next day without even blinking. This makes him a real heart breaker and can lead to him flitting about from one person to the next looking for that “connection” that trumps all previous connections.

Also, did I mention the Knight of Cups LOVES drama? He loves it so much that he sometimes unconsciously creates it  – whether it be in a relationship or in the workplace. Drama is what feeds his soul!

Practices to embody this card:

– Start calling yourself a shaman (kidding!)

– take an acting class

– write some angsty poetry

– express yourself through fashion

-see if you can just go with the flow more often

Journalling Questions:

♥ How/where can you benefit from this Knight’s traits?

♥ Where would you like to be less like this Knight?

♥ How can you express yourself creatively?

♥ How can you embrace the idea of FLOW into your life more?

Tell me your thoughts!

Did you enjoy this deep dive? What aspect of the Knight of Cups do you most relate to? Let me know in the comments below…

♥ Join me next time as I dive into the Knight of Wands – the most adventurous and wild one of the bunch! Hop on my mailing list so you won’t miss out!

***Grab your FREE Court Card Cheatsheet right HERE!***

You may also enjoy…

Court Card Tarot Meanings
Tarot Meanings Deep Dive series (Major Arcana)