Minor Arcana, the Cups

Knight of Cups

The Knight of Cups, as Pamela Colman Smith drew him in 1909, rides a pale grey horse at a slow walk and holds a gold cup out in front of him at arm's length. Small wings sweep back from his helmet and from his heel, and behind him a blue river winds past a tall, rocky orange cliff.

What Waite wrote it means (1910)

Divinatory meanings: Arrival, approach—sometimes that of a messenger; advances, proposition, demeanour, invitation, incitement.
Reversed: Trickery, artifice, subtlety, swindling, duplicity, fraud.

Arthur Edward Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (London, 1911), p. 202. Read it in the chapter

Graceful, but not warlike; riding quietly, wearing a winged helmet, referring to those higher graces of the imagination which sometimes characterize this card. He too is a dreamer, but the images of the side of sense haunt him in his vision.

Waite's description of the card, from the same book.

What's in the picture

The winged helmet. A pair of grey wings sweeps back from the top of his helmet, tied on with a red band. Waite links them to the "higher graces of the imagination".
The cup. He holds the gold cup upright and well out in front of him, steady, as if carrying it to someone. His arm is cased in plate armour down to the wrist.
His face. Under the open helmet his face is calm and in profile, his eyes on the way ahead rather than on the cup.
The fish on his tunic. Over his armour is a grey tunic printed with black waves and red fish. One swims across his chest and another below his belt.
The winged heel. Small grey wings also grow from the back of his heel, beside the stirrup, matching the ones on his helmet.
The walking horse. The grey horse bows its head and lifts one foreleg high, at a walk. Waite said the knight is "riding quietly" and is "not warlike".
The river. In front of the horse, a blue river winds across the bottom of the card between yellow banks.
The cliff and hills. On the right an orange cliff rises with dark trees on it, and the river bends round its foot. Far off on the left, low purple hills and a line of trees stand along the horizon.
The harness. A dark strap patterned with wavy lines, like water, crosses the horse's neck to a pale blue bridle.

The card in brief

In the deck: Card 48 of 78
Arcana: Minor Arcana, Cups
Number: Knight
Element (Golden Dawn): Water
Title in Book T: The Lord of the Waves and the Waters: the King of the Hosts of the Sea
Drawn by: Pamela Colman Smith
Planned by: Arthur Edward Waite
Published: London, William Rider & Son, 1909
Scan: Pam-A printing, c. 1910, Wikimedia Commons

In the old books

Book T (1912)
A Beautiful, winged, youthful Warrior with flying hair, riding upon a white horse, which latter is not winged. His general equipment is similar to that of the Knight of Wands, but upon his helmet, cuirass and buskins is a peacock with opened wings. He holds a cup in his hand, bearing the sigil of the scale. Beneath his horse's feet is the sea. From the cup issues a crab.
Graceful, poetic, Venusian, indolent, but enthusiastic if roused.
Ill dignified, he is sensual, idle and untruthful.
Book T, “A Description of the Cards of the Tarot”, The Equinox I.8 (London, 1912), pp. 162–163. See the source
Papus (1892)
A young fair man, a friend. The young man loved. The Lover.
Papus, The Tarot of the Bohemians, tr. A. P. Morton (London, 1892), p. 312. See the source