The Spiritual Meaning of the Knight of Cups Tarot Card

The Knight of Cups tarot card usually shows a young man in shining white armor atop a white horse, holding up a cup. He is on a quest for love—the quest of the cups, the suit of emotion, connection, and love. He can also be a bit of a bad boyfriend.

The Knight in Shining Armor

The Knight of Cups is the archetype of the “knight in shining armor.” He is a fairytale figure, someone who will come and rescue us from whatever distress we happen to be in. His cup echoes the Holy Grail, the magical cup that can solve anyone’s problem but might not actually exist. He offers the promise of escape, of rescue, of the joy and pleasure of love and romance outside of the painful realities we may be dealing with at the time. In some cases, this can be a really wonderful thing. But there are also times when we need to watch out for the Knight of Cups because he is not everything he seems.

The Knights of the Tarot are on a quest. They’ve learned more about their respective suits than the Pages, and they have enough information to go out and seek the wisdom of their suits. But they still have a lot to learn before they come to the mastery of the Kings and Queens. In this sense, court cards can represent ourselves and where we are in our journey. Maybe we are embodying the Knight of Cups, looking for the secrets to love and romance and still making some mistakes while we try to figure it all out.

The Illusions of Love

Court cards can also represent people in our lives. When I’m giving someone a reading, I often like to ask whether the court figure reminds the querent of anyone in their life. If it does, the card is often referencing that person. If it doesn’t, it tends to represent an aspect of the person asking the question. If this card represents someone in your life, it might be someone you are seeing as a lover, a romantic possibility, or a rescuer—someone who can come and take you away from all the pain in your life. While other people can play this role for us in some ways, we must be careful that we are not giving our power away when we let someone help us.

When the Knight of Cups appears, it is a good idea to ask ourselves about our relationship with illusion. Do we so badly want to be rescued that we blind ourselves to someone’s flaws? Do we feel disillusioned by someone who we once thought was perfect (especially if your Knight is reversed in your spread)? Are we focused on what someone is promising without looking for the evidence that it’s actually going to happen?

Learning the Lessons of Love

We may also want to consider the Knight of Cups as someone who is on a mission to learn about romantic love. In order to love intimately, we need to feel safe. Many of us have conscious and unconscious beliefs that romantic love is frivolous or hormonal, an indulgence only for the young. But romantic love can also be understood as one of the great meanings of life—the pleasure and joy in connecting intimately and authentically with someone is one of the best possible outcomes of being a human being with a body that can be shared. When two people come together, especially in the longer term, their family systems are also coming together, sometimes creating children who become the next generation. What could be more meaningful than that?

So when you think about love in your life, especially if this was a part of your question for the Tarot, consider whether and how you value it. How is love and romance valued (or not) within your family and culture? Do you feel permission to care about and want romance? Does it feel like an impossible dream? The Knight of Cups may be asking you to ground your wish for romance a little bit more in reality so you can achieve a romantic experience that is more than just fleeting.

Learn more about how to do a tarot reading for anxiety.