Pamela Colman Smith · RWS deck
The Minor Arcana
Knight of Cups
Ruach in Briah
- Suit
- cups
- Rank
- Knight
- World
- Briah
- Soul level
- Ruach
- Position
- Up 1
Ruach, spirit in motion
Ruach is spirit in motion, the level of character and will. Knights are home in Yetzirah, work down one into Assiah, and reach up into Briah and Atziluth.
Upright
Flowing. Spirit moving toward who one is becoming: devotion carried as feeling into making. The drive reaches one world up into creation, and it moves with care, because what it carries can spill.
Misdirected. Romantic motion that never arrives, or feeling taken for identity.
Reversed
Blocked. Devotion cannot move toward who you are becoming, stuck in place.
Flooded. The constant pursuit of a feeling.
The image
A knight with a winged helmet and winged boots rides a white horse at a slow walk, carrying a cup before him like an offering. A river runs beside him. It is the calmest of the four Knights, and the only one who is looking at what he carries.
Learn how to read Knight of Cups in a spread
This page shows you what Knight of Cups means. Knowing how to read it — how it shifts next to the other cards, what the reversal is really telling you, and how to turn a spread into a clear answer — is what the RWS Decoded course and book teach, card by card.
