The traditional meaning of the King of Cups in a layout is to receive wise advice, comfort and support. This is a friend, a benefactor, ready to listen and assist. The card may indicate someone to whom the questioner has sincere affection and trust, and who is sympathetic to his affairs and concerns.

The typical roles of the King of Cups are a kind friend, a loving husband, a caring father, a generous philanthropist.

King of Cups shows a situation of reason and honor, in which there is friendliness, goodwill, and the absence of a threat. Circumstances are very favorable, but the case has yet to be finalized. The details are not yet clear (surrounding cards may give a hint), but if nothing contradicts, then the outcome will be favorable.

Presence of the King of Cups is a sure sign that a person will not be left alone: at the right time somebody always come to the rescue and make it possible to realize plans.

Cons of this King: a tendency to passive resistance and self-deception instead of an honest “no” (it is difficult for him to refuse someone something), instability to stress and difficult adaptation to life’s realities.

The throne of the King of Cups sometimes stands on the seashore, and sometimes literally floats on the water. Usually this King is depicted barefoot, without armor or with only breastplates. He never looks menacing, although often very powerful. If his feet touch the water, then this is a symbol of the free connection of consciousness and the unconscious, as well as humility and forgiveness of human weaknesses. A sailboat with scarlet sails hints at the innermost dreams of the human heart, and a dolphin frolicking sideways – that water is the source of mind and life. On Etruscan tombs, dolphins are depicted as mythological psychopomps that deliver the souls of the dead to another world.

King of Cups

The Water that flows through all things. In the hands of the King is a goblet in which a fire burns. The quiet period in his life is over. But on the chest of the Pharaoh is the image of Pisces, a symbol of power over the water element: he will defeat her.

Crowley writes that the King of Cups symbolizes self-sacrifice to free oneself from the feeling of guilt associated with sexual desire, and at the same time – Unio Mystica, the union of the soul with God or Goddess. In the Tarot system, the King is the embodiment of Yod – the first letter of the tetragrammaton, the unpronounceable name of God, and the fiery energy that awakens the energy of the Queen’s Water. This symbolic union goes back centuries, to those cultures, starting with the Sumerian, where kings entered into ritual marriage with the goddess in order to maintain the well-being of their kingdom.

Love

The traditional meanings of the King of Cups are the husband or wife of the questioner. Based on this alone, the card can be interpreted as favorable for affairs of the heart. In a broader sense, he describes an enriching experience of tenderness, sensitivity and love, subjugation to charm, deep feelings, spiritual warmth. As a mature expression of the suit, the King of Cups represents richness and depth of feeling.

It symbolizes love, but such, the basis of which is not so much emotions as devotion, affection and trust, the ability to obey and give. He is romantic to the point of impossibility.

The King of Cups seeks an emotional connection.

He knows how to charm, captivate, tune in a romantic mood and send waves of dreams that transform everyday life. At best, he is endowed with the power to “make a fairy tale come true”, and the fairy tale will be about love.

In the worst case, he becomes an amazing manipulator, capable of creating a colossal psychological dependence on himself, because he knows everything about feelings.

He is the Lord of Water, capable of creating unique spiritual magic with intonation, glance, symbolic gesture, and literally nothing. The realm of the King of Cups is the realm of the Grail. It is the total power to give Love. The very, true, eternal, impossible, inevitable, immortal …

The King of Cups reveals that stunning truth that it is still there, and yet they have not forgotten. “Love is a magical land, because only in it there is happiness”… and only with him alone (with his muscles, money, intelligence, prospects…) Here he is, the Lord of Water, a walking drug… how does he do it anyway? ! The King of Cups is not so artistic in terms of external gestures and manifestations, he achieves it due to emotional depth.

The King of Cups is able to love all his life. This is the fiery aspect of Water – his feelings are able to keep alive and warm in the absence of visible stimuli from the outside. This is the only King who can die of love. All other Kings have their own kingdom, where they can escape in case of a personal drama – the world of business, the world of science, the world of politics – and the King of Cups has nowhere to run, because Love is his kingdom.

As a partner, the King of Cups is a soft-hearted and emotional man, sincere, calm and devoted. This is a true friend, intuitive, sensual, creative, capable of giving many happy,m minutes. His deep and mature feeling of love is capable of healing. Yes, besides that, you can drown in the King of Cups.

Health

It can indicate emotional stress and addiction to drinking.

It can hint at water imbalances in the body, trouble with the kidneys or bladders, as well as reversed card gives seasickness or alcohol poisoning.

Reversed King of Cup

The reversed King of Cups usually clearly responds to a truly destructive emotional process, a path of self-destruction, and especially alcoholism. This is a person who has lost control of his feelings, an addict who suffers from addictions and is drowning in his own subconscious, as if in the sea. Psycho-emotional disorders, depression, mood swings.

Usually he is just touchy, vindictive and internally exhausted, and therefore withdraws into himself and “comes out the other side”, playing games and making others believe that it cannot be otherwise. Sometimes it is simply the significator of “exhausted lover.” The card may indicate a marriage swindler, a swindler who is inclined to live and have fun at someone else’s expense,

His life is a path of self-destruction. Once in his path, you will also be involved in a destructive process.

In a reversed position, King of Cups can describe an attack of melancholy, despair. “What is the comforter crying out to heaven for? So that he does not seek consolation himself! (A. Crowley).

With other Cards:

with the Magician – exalted artistry, outrageous

Reversed with the Tower – a flash of suppressed emotions

with the Two of Cups for a girl – a quick marriage, for a young man – jealousy