Knight of Cups: tarot card meaning

In A. E. Waite's Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910), the Knight of Cups upright means: Arrival, approach (sometimes that of a messenger); advances, proposition, demeanour, invitation, incitement. Reversed: Trickery, artifice, subtlety, swindling, duplicity, fraud.

The picture

“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.” A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, 1910

Upright

Arrival, approach (sometimes that of a messenger); advances, proposition, demeanour, invitation, incitement.

Waite's additional meanings: A visit from a friend, who will bring unexpected money to the Querent.

Reversed

Trickery, artifice, subtlety, swindling, duplicity, fraud.

Waite's additional meanings, reversed: Irregularity.

In one line

Arrival and invitation: a proposal comes. (Esbat's own summary of Waite's meaning and picture.)

Where it sits in the deck

The Knight of Cups is the twelfth card of the suit of Cups, one of the 56 Minor Arcana. The other Knights: Knight of Wands, Knight of Swords, Knight of Pentacles.

In Esbat

Esbat deals a card of the day, face down until you turn it, and holds all 78 cards in the 1910 pictures with Waite's meanings, upright and reversed. The Knight of Cups can be shared as a picture. All 78 tarot card meanings.

Sources

Meanings and picture descriptions: A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (London: Rider, 1910), public domain, checked against the Wikisource transcription. Picture: Pamela Colman Smith, 1910, public domain. Like the app, this page records what the book says; it does not promise outcomes.

Last updated October 25, 2026.

Esbat: Tarot & Book of Shadows, on Google Play

A card of the day, face down until you turn it, and all 78 cards in the 1910 pictures with Waite's meanings, upright and reversed. For Android.

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Keep reading

• Page of Cups: tarot card meaning: Page of Cups tarot card meaning, upright and reversed, in A. E. Waite's own words (1910), with the original 1910 picture.
• Queen of Cups: tarot card meaning: Queen of Cups tarot card meaning, upright and reversed, in A. E. Waite's own words (1910), with the original 1910 picture.
• Tarot card meanings: all 78 cards: All 78 tarot card meanings, upright and reversed, in A. E. Waite's own words (1910), with Pamela Colman Smith's original pictures.