King of Cups Tarot Card Meaning

King of Cups upright

A king sits on a throne set on the sea, a short sceptre in one hand and a large cup in the other; a ship sails on one side and a dolphin leaps on the other. Waite lists a fair man of business, law or divinity, responsible and disposed to help — equity, art and science, creative intelligence. Stay calm and steady among moving waters.

King of Cups reversed

Waite reversed gives a dishonest, double-dealing man, roguery, exaction, injustice and scandal. Watch for someone whose calm hides an agenda — and keep your own dealings clean.

A reversed card (What does Upright / reversed card mean?) is one drawn upside-down.

Is King of Cups a yes or no?

Upright: Leans yes. Yes — handled calmly and fairly.

Reversed: Reversed, King of Cups reads as a gentle no: double-dealing, manipulation, injustice.

The yes/no lean is BornClock’s reading convention drawn from the card’s meaning — Waite himself did not assign one.

Symbolism in the King of Cups card

What appears in the 1909 Rider–Waite–Smith picture, as Waite describes it:

• Throne on the sea — calm amid emotion
• Short sceptre and large cup — authority and feeling together
• Ship on one side, leaping dolphin on the other — the water that runs through the suit

In Waite’s own words (paraphrased)

Upright: a fair man of business, law or divinity; responsible; equity, art and science; creative intelligence.

Reversed: a dishonest, double-dealing man; roguery, exaction, injustice, vice, scandal, considerable loss.

Source: A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910, public domain). Some of Waite’s 1910 fortune-telling meanings are old-fashioned; the plain-English reading above is ours.