Beautiful but cold sunny day today. My son's solar return is today; Happy Birthday, My Dear!
The Knight of Cups wears beautifully designed armor fashioned from gold that looks dramatic and eye-catching but that might not work so well in a battle. Our Knight wears a mask of gold that completely covers his eyes, with double wings and a stylized halo made of golden vines above and behind his head. He wears fancy epaulets made of gold on his shoulders and a stylized golden kilt with many strands of gold coins hanging like a fringe at the front closure. He has one hand on his heart, and the other hand holds a golden rose which is beginning to lose its petals. Beside him floats a dagger made of water, which is beginning to drip into a cup floating just below the dagger's point. The water in the cup appears to be sloshing about. The keywords for this card are emotional, brooding, artistic, and dreaming.
The image on the II of Cups shows two Cups of clear water tilted toward each other, as if they were clinking together in a toast. Above them circle two golden fish; above the fish is a golden arrow, broken in half. The keywords for this card are connection, partnership, union, and romance.
My Knight of Cups hints at an intensity of feelings that could be associated with the physical world; after all, Water is one of the two elements that can be perceived by our physical senses (the other element is Earth). The Knight of Cups is a dreamer whose mind is filled with all kinds of exciting ideas and possibilities. However, because he is a Knight, he tends to carry his suit to an intensity that just might separate him from reality. We have only to think about the purpose of the Knight in the hierarchies of his world to understand this. He is a soldier, but usually he is not free to indulge his own needs or values. Rather, he is pledged to a Liege or Lord. He receives support, arms, armor, etc. as well as payment from his Lord, and in return he works to the benefit of that Lord. Our Knight of Cups might not be the best soldier, but his ability to visualize, create, and think out of the box would be quite valuable.
The II of Cups shows an awareness or initial manifestation of emotions or feelings or visions. The number 2 represents balance, polarity (such as night/day), duality (such as yin/yang), comparison, and bonding, and it offers both connection and direction (because it represents "distance between"). The number 2 can also be seen as a gateway (two pillars can represent a gateway), and in the Tarot the Minor Arcana II cards show us energy that is pure or at face value, without the influences of such things as catalyst, motion, stillness or action taken.
Using Elemental Dignities to bring more understanding, we find that the rank of Knight corresponds to the Element of Fire (which is active and represents heat that separates and dry that shapes). Both of our cards are from the suit of Cups which corresponds with the element of Water (which is passive and represents cold that binds and wet that adapts), which has nothing in common with Fire. Our Knight of Cups is in conflict because his mind is filled with dreams and ideas and creations and elegant stories, yet he exists within a rank that is about bravery and passions and dominance and power. Oh, our Knight of Cups understands the passion part of this, just not the use of power to dominate others. Our II of Cups reinforces this misunderstanding of dominance because the number 2 represents partnerships, and this encourages another skill of our Knight of Cups: the ability to ease tensions and find commonalities that will bring lasting peace, so everyone can prosper.
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