Cups · Minor Arcana
He holds a short sceptre in his left hand and a great cup in his right; his throne is set upon the sea; on one side a ship is riding and on the other a dolphin is leaping.
The King sits on a throne in the middle of the sea — calm, though the waters move around him. A fish leaps to one side; a ship rides the waves to the other. This is mastery of feeling: not the absence of storms, but the steadiness that holds the ship through them.
Element
Water
Numerology
14— mastery of outer realm, authority, leadership, command
What the card says to you is truer than what anyone else says it means.
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King of Cups by life area
He holds a short sceptre in his left hand and a great cup in his right; his throne is set upon the sea; on one side a ship is riding and on the other a dolphin is leaping. The implicit is that the Sign of the Cup naturally refers to water, which appears in all the court cards.
Source: “The Pictorial Key to the Tarot” by A.E. Waite (1910). Public domain.
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