For the first card in this new series of posts, I’m going to talk a bit about how the Knight of Cups can show up differently for you depending on your Enneagram type. If you missed my intro post on “How the Enneagram makes you a better Tarot reader”, go check it out! I’m planning on going through a few cards over the next week or so to illustrate the nuance that can show up when we look at the cards through the lens of our type (which we’re always doing, whether we know it or not!).
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The Knight of Cups in general implores us to lead with our hearts, showing up with our hearts on our sleeves, willing to move through the world with vulnerability and empathy. So, for all the “heart types” of the Enneagram (2, 3 and 4) this card may have special resonance, and also special cautions.
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Enneagram 2s are particularly other-focused, spending their energy on meeting the needs of others while denying their own. 2s unaware of this can almost see the Knight of Cups as justification of this tendency in themselves, when it may be asking them to check it. The Knight is, after all, moving in the direction of their *own* heart, not giving the cup away but allowing it to guide them, which is something 2s have a very hard time doing.
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Type 3s are feeling dominant AND feeling repressed, which can make this Knight a difficult archetype to embody, and thus a very significant one for them to work with. 3s ‘stance’ is aggressive/assertive, so this Knight can be a call to soften and balance their approach as they move towards people.
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4s can easily identify with interpretations of the Knight of Cups as a poet, a potentially melodramatic figure, OR—given this type’s longing for someone to rescue them romantically—as the proverbial ’knight on a white horse’ who can come into their life and sweep them away. The call for the 4 here is to ground the emotions in the body (given the Knight’s association with movement, connection with the body is significant), and to remember that despite the focus on the heart, the Knight is moving forward (as 4s are ‘doing repressed’.).
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Moving on to those in the head type (5, 6, and 7)!
Enneagram 5s struggle with emotional connection. They are a withdrawn and cerebral type, so being asked to move *toward* life with the focus on feeling instead of thinking?! This is a tall order and thus a very important energy for them to explore.
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6s may have a similar relationship to this Knight as 2s. They are often called the ‘buddy’ or the ‘loyalist’, and they can identify with the Knight of Cups as someone who moves through life as a companion and helper. 6s love a cause, and Knights are on campaigns! But like the 2, 6s need to bring the focus back to themselves and learn to be led by an internal compass. They are both thinking dominant AND thinking repressed, so learning to move from the body and heart center (represented here by the horse and the cup) is vital.
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7s, the ‘enthusiast’, can easily relate to the Knight of Cups as someone who moves towards pleasure, when it’s important for them to remember that emotions are vast and varied and the Cups can carry grief as well as joy. Emotions, being fleeting and transitory, also demand that we stay in the moment. So for the 7, this Knight can be a call to move through life with a focus on what is here now, what fills this cup at this moment—which is contrary to their tendency towards anticipatory thinking.
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Moving to the “gut” triad (8, 9 and 1), type 8 can be particularly called by this Knight to show their vulnerability. 8s have big and aggressive energy, and fear exposing their tender side, so this archetype is difficult and necessary for them to work with. 8s might want to focus on the movement of the Knight—the charge!—but they need to bring more attention to the cup. The knight is moving with slow intention to keep their cup from spilling.
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9s, being ‘doing repressed’, are definitely called to the movement of the knight, when unlike the 8, it might be an aspect they’d prefer to avoid. 9s prefer to sit on fences and not be seen, so getting on a horse in a ‘look at me’ vibe is threatening! This Knight implores them to show up, guided by the light of their own heart.
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Type 1s can be called OUT by this Knight and the way they’ve gotten all gussied up in a style of presentation. As the ‘perfectionists’ of the Enneagram, 1s can want to do everything ‘just so’ and be seen as noble in the process. They need to focus on the cup, on the heart, and not on the style and method of movement or delivery.