Blogging the Tarot: King of Cups
We’re expanding our tarot kingdom evermore with this week’s look at the King of Cups.
He brings us back to the Minor Arcana and offers our first introduction to the court cards. We’ve talked about how the Minor Arcana consists of four suits – Wands, Pentacles, Swords, and Cups. And how within each suit are numbers 1-10 plus the court cards. Let’s take a closer look at the court, which consists of the:
Page – the androgenous youth embodying the purest energy of the suit
Knight – the hypermasculine conqueror
Queen – the feminine ruler
King – the masculine overseer
If you’ve played with tarot at all, you’ve likely found some cards you get really excited to see and others that sort of bum you out. Right now, the Kings sort of bum me out. All of the masculine leaders do, and I don’t think that’s a coincidence given the state of the Union and the impending presidential election.
Fear not, though. This week’s blog will not turn into a political commentary, because admittedly I can’t speak intelligently enough on the issues to fill three pages. I will tell you as a woman and as a queer person, I’m nervous for what this election could mean for all of us.
We’ve seen what can happen when masculine energy is allowed to dominate unchecked.
We’ve seen what can happen when feminine energy is vilified.
In the spirit of manifesting though, let’s imagine what could happen if the best aspects of each energy were utilized to their fullest extent. Could this be our King of Cups, the masculine ruler of the feminine suit? Does he have what it takes to balance practicality and compassion, obligation and empathy, strategy and sympathy?
When I think of balancing the energetic bodies, I think of my yoga practice.
Catching that arm balance in my 200 YTT, 2020
Most of what I know about energy and the way it moves I learned in yoga. I started practicing after my daughter was born as a way to give my body and my mind a break – or, more accurately, a reunion. Yoga literally means, “to yoke,” which refers to the bringing together of mind, body, and spirit. The first class I went to ended with me crying on my mat, which is sort of a yogic rite of passage if you ask me; practice long enough and intensely enough, and that shavasana is going to break something loose for you. I joined Exhale Yoga after moving back to Louisville in 2019 and loved it because the flows were accessible, the atmosphere was warm, and the people were friendly. I had been practicing there consistently for about 6 months when the opportunity to do teacher training arose, and while I had never intended to become a yoga instructor, things just kept falling into place for me to say yes.
We talked a lot about energy as it moves through the body and between bodies and around the world. We learned about the subtle energy body compared to the physical body, we learned about the chakra system – a series of energetic orbs up and down the spine. We learned a lot about feminine and masculine energy – or yin and yang, or shakti and shiva, or moon and sun. All two parts of a greater whole that thrive when they are in harmony.
Talking about energy in yoga is great, but feeling energy in yoga is transformational.
Teacher training was a good balance of practice and theory with our time roughly split between the two. We would practice for hours, and the time would just evaporate. It was in this space that my intuition started to come to the surface. My physical body was learning how to release and relax, and under the masculine energy armor I had been donning for such a long time was a gentle and powerful feminine energy that could perceive much more than what the physical world had to offer.
The most potent example of that came at the closing ceremony for teacher training. I gathered with my 15 cohorts to celebrate the end of our journey and the growth each of us had accomplished in our 200 hours together. We joined together in a wide circle and did a unified loving kindness meditation; this one was different, though.
After months of practicing meditation consistently, I had gotten pretty good at it. I could sink down real low real fast and keep the mind distractions to a minimum, and so could everyone else. The hush that fell over the room when we were all meditating felt almost tangible for how pervasive it was. And it was in that state that we all moved energy around our little circle.
We started with the first person in line, each of us concentrating our high vibrational loving energy and gratitude into a beam of light pointed directly at them. Then we moved to the next in line, then the next, then the next. That focused light energy moved around the circle of 16 people at the gentle prompting of our instructor until it made its way to me in one of the final spots. When the prompt was offered to move that loving kindness to me, I had a physical reaction I was not expecting at all. I literally felt like I could have levitated off the mat. My eyes began to flutter, my whole body tingled, my breath caught in my chest, and I felt a lifting in my heart space. It was as real as feeling the air from an oscillating fan when it finally points in your direction. I soaked up the beams of goodness from my little yoga family for less than 60 seconds, and then it moved on to the next. I could feel the swell of energy abate and my whole Self gently float back to Earth, and I immediately began to cry.
That event solidified my belief in the presence and power of unseen energy.
All of my practice as a psychic – and even as a yogi – are built from that foundation.
I tell people in readings constantly, “Everyone has masculine and feminine energy, it has nothing to do with gender or sexuality.” It’s a testament to the open-mindedness of the people who venture up to see me that no one really bristles when I explain that. Do you know when I feel compelled to offer that disclaimer though? When I tell a man he has feminine energy or when I tell a woman she has masculine energy. Maybe that’s my own programming and my insecurities about not presenting feminine enough; maybe that’s internalized misogyny in not wanting to insult a man by telling him he’s in his feminine energy (even though I always mean it as a compliment). Either way, something has led us to believe that men and lesbians equal masculine and women and gays equal feminine, full stop. And of course, everything is so much more nuanced and a lot more fluid than that.
Feminine and masculine energy both exist everywhere.
It’s really just a way of labeling opposites that are two halves of a whole. Our feminine energy flows through the left side of our body. It’s our feeling nature, the space where we get in touch with our emotions and, by extension, our intuition. It’s where we connect on a personal level to other people or to pieces of art that move us or to experiences that resonate with us. Our masculine energy flows through the right side of our body. This is what enables to complete practical matters in life. It’s our ability to think linearly and rationally, to solve problems and do math and find patterns. One is not superior to the other, and both are necessary in order to function at all on this earthly plane.
It's funny because as I type that, to me the feminine sounds far superior while I acknowledge that the masculine is necessary in a practical sense. There will be others that believe masculine is obviously better because it’s functional and efficient and productive. And to be honest, there have been periods of my life – like when I was a bioengineer for 15 years – where it would have been obvious to me that masculine was superior. Tarot is a Rorschach test though, and your opinions about the pros and cons of masculine and feminine energy says more about your lens than it does about the energies themselves.
The point is, both are necessary for us to get through this life experience; each is appropriate at different points in time. We all have at least a little bit of both, and we all use at least a little bit of both. It’s just that everyone’s proportions are different, and some people get confused as to what situation calls for which energy. We toggle back and forth without realizing it, for most of us it’s not a conscious decision to call forth one energy or the other. And in plenty of cases, we utilize both. Say you’re at the store trying to pick out a shirt. You are gathering tons of information while you’re trying to make a decision, both in your head (masculine) and in your feels (feminine).
- I like these six shirts (feminine)
- These three are appropriate for work (masculine)
- I’m here for a work shirt (masculine)
- This one is way too expensive for a shirt (masculine)
- I like this color better than that color (feminine)
- I’m buying all six because, joy (feminine)
If we only existed in one energy space or the other, we would be paralyzed. You need at least a little feminine energy to decide whether you like the blue or the green shirt more – please argue with me about this, and I’ll refer you to one of my favorite books, You Are Not So Smart by David McRaney where he discusses the physiological need for emotion in decision-making. At the same time, you need masculine energy to execute the practical matter of actually purchasing the shirt – feeling an affinity for a shirt only gets you so far in becoming the proud owner of said shirt. When feminine and masculine exist in harmony, we can get a lot of shi(r)t done. When they’re out of balance, we get in our own way.
So what’s the deal with the King of Cups?
King of Cups, from the Tarot Mucha tarot deck
The suit of Cups is associated with the element of water and is more feminine leaning. In this suit, our intuition flows with less effort. We feel our way down the path of least resistance and trust that whatever we meet at the end is what we’re meant to meet. The King, by contrast, represents a seasoned masculine energy. This is someone who has risen through the ranks to find himself in a position of power. In doing so, he’s made himself responsible for the wellbeing of the kingdom over which he presides. So how does a quintessential masculine energy become ruler of the feminine suit? By striking the balance.
I like Rachel Pollack’s explanation of this King in Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom. She describes him as someone whose role in authority doesn’t necessary suit him (pun is a happy accident). This King is someone that was thriving in the Cups and doing so well flowing and creating from his feminine energy that everyone around him agreed that he should be ruler. And while he’s flattered and honored to be chosen, his position on the throne removes him from the practical matters of actually touching the waters. It’s like if we decided that, since Caitlin Clark is so good at basketball, she should be President of the League. That might be great for the sport, and maybe she’d do a good job – but I bet she’d miss the hell out of playing basketball.
Our King of Cups doesn’t get to feel the feels as acutely anymore, he doesn’t get to create for creating’s sake. He now has to don the robes of a leader and take responsibility for the freedoms of those around him. This King is perhaps forced into his masculine energy a little more than is comfortable for him, which is a role I think we’ve all had to endure. We have to be the authoritarian when we really just want to be the playmate. We have to be the grown-up when we just want to be the child. We have to do the selling when we really just want to do the making. “Heavy is the head that wears the crown,” feels appropriate for this King, and that’s ok.
When the King of Cups comes up in a reading, take it as a compliment that you’ve done so well at your role that those around you see you as a leader. You’ve been selected to captain the ship because you’re the most equipped to do so, even if captaining a ship was never really what you intended to do. If you’re finding that the masculine matters are taking you way too far away from the feminine energy, find a way to recalibrate. Give yourself a vacation, delegate some of the ruling to make more room for the creating, educate and evolve your subjects to alleviate some of your personal responsibility. You’re doing a good job even if it feels a little stifling right now. The most important piece is to find time to create, time to feel, time to flow.
What area of your life have you been thrust into a role as a reluctant leader? What masculine strengths have helped you be successful? What feminine pursuit has had to go on the backburner?
