King of Cups

Identity

Symbols

• Stone Throne on the SeaThe throne stands in the waves themselves — his steadiness is not from avoiding the water but from sitting within it without being pulled.+

  Waite places it plainly: 'his throne is set upon the sea'. No shore shows beneath it. Among the Cups courts the Queen sits at the water's edge and the Knight rides past a stream; only the King has water on every side.

• Cup and ScepterOne hand for feeling, one hand for order — he refuses to set either down, and that is the weight of this card.+

  Waite weights the hands unevenly: 'a short scepter in his left hand and a great cup in his right'. The suit's emblem is the large thing, held in the right; the instrument of rule is the shorter, in the left.

• The Ship in the DistanceHe sees what is underway far off — but does not rise to chase it; he knows his own position is itself a direction.+

  Waite sets the ship and the dolphin on opposite sides: 'on one side a ship is riding and on the other a dolphin is leaping'. Bar his throne, the ship is the only made thing afloat — human craft across from the living animal.

• The Leaping DolphinA feeling leaps up out of the depths to be seen — he neither flinches nor cradles it — he only acknowledges: yes, it is there.+

  In Greek tradition the dolphin rescues those lost at sea: Herodotus tells how one bore the singer Arion ashore after sailors forced him overboard (Histories 1.24). Here it leaps opposite the ship, out of the water the vessel crosses.

• The Fish PendantA small fish on a chain at his neck — the suit's creature worn close to the body, as an emblem.+

  On the Page of Cups a fish rises from the cup 'to look at him', as Waite puts it — alive and unexpected. On the King it hangs fixed on a chain at his neck, worn as an ornament, while out on the water a live dolphin leaps.

Story

Water spreads to both sides of this picture, and in the middle of it the king sits as though on solid ground. Around him the sea keeps moving — a ship rides on one flank, on the other the surface breaks open — and none of it reaches the seated figure. The eye goes out to either side and returns each time to the centre, where no shore is anywhere in view. The stillness here is not a calm day's; it is held in the middle of moving water.

Correspondences

Elemental Dignity

Shadow

Related Cards

Queen of Cups

Justice

Temperance