The 78 Cards
King of Cups
Minor Arcana, the suit of Cups, the King. Element: water.
Calm in rough water, leading with a steady heart.
The picture
A king sits on a stone throne that seems to float on a rolling sea. He holds a golden cup in one hand and a short sceptre in the other, and a fish shaped pendant hangs on his chest. His face is calm. On one side of him a fish leaps out of the waves, and on the other a ship with red sails rides the water.
Upright
The King is mastery in the world. He leads with his suit. In Cups, he leads with a steady heart.
This is the card of emotional balance and wisdom. The counsellor, the diplomat, the calm voice in the room when everyone else is shouting. He feels everything the Queen feels. The difference is that he has learned to act from those feelings in public, in work and in leadership, without being tipped over by them.
Look at the sea. The water around him is anything but still. The waves roll, the fish leaps, the ship pitches. The King sits in the middle of it, dry and steady on his stone block. The sea stays rough. His calm comes from within, and that is enough to steer by.
When this card turns up, the situation usually calls for exactly that. Keep your head, keep your heart open, and let people see that both are possible at once.
Like every court card, he can be a person, an approach, or a part of you, and the age and gender of the figure do not limit who it describes.
Reversed
Reversed, I read this card as turned inward, or as too much or too little.
Turned inward is calm on the surface and a storm underneath. Feelings pushed down so far that the stillness is really a dam holding back a flood. Sooner or later, it blows.
Too much or too little shows in how feelings are used. Too much is moodiness, or using emotion to steer other people. Too little is coldness, the King who has stopped feeling at all so he never has to wobble.
To tell which, ask what happens when you are finally alone. If everything you held in all day comes pouring out, it is turned inward. If there is nothing there, or if people tread carefully around your moods, the balance is off.
When it turns up
Where do you need to steady yourself so you can steer through rough water?
If you would like the cards read against your own chart, my readings are here.
The 78 Cards
Every card in the deck, upright and reversed.
See every page and post in the Contents.
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