The knight of cups invites you to be courageous enough to pursue something you believe is meaningful, while exercising the discernment required to know whether what you’re pursuing is worthy of your devotion. It would seem that anything we believe in meaningful is worthy of our devotion. However, the knight of cups highlights a possible tension between being led by love vs. being seduced by possibility. The knight of cups is an idealist at heart, and so when we see this card, we must ask ourselves: am I in love with what is, or am I in love with what I imagine could be?
how this translates In entrepreneurship, leadership and business
So when I read this card for a business, I often see a founder or a leader who has a big vision, who believes something different is possible for their business or organization, who sees what is there and what it could become. And they are in love with, attached to, or being driven by possibility.
This is an extraordinary gift. Businesses (and especially innovation) are not built on numbers alone. They are built on imagination, conviction, VISION and the willingness to create something that hasn’t existed before. There has to be some level of devotion to possibility for any business to succeed.
AND. The knight of cups can sometimes indicate that a founder/leader/team is more attached to the dream than to the reality.
When we see this card, it’s a great moment to ask ourselves, how might this fail? And, is it worth suffering for? (note: listen to or read Law 25: The power of negative manifestation from The 33 Laws of Business and Life by Stephan Bartlett).
That being said, the knight of cups doesn’t mean that what we are pursuing isn’t worth our time or devotion. It is a profound indicator that what we are envisioning is rooted in meaning. There is a genuine love for the work, the mission, the customers, the contribution, the team, etc. And, there is a genuine ability to see and imagine possibilities that other leaders, teams, or businesses are not seeing (hello competitive advantage). The knight of cups offers a green light to be driven by this meaning, even and especially if the path forward is unconventional.
This knight’s shadow is the potential to romanticize what’s possible, to become too attached to what the business (idea, team, mission, etc.) represents vs. what’s required.
Some simplified examples of how this might look or play out include:
a person who loves the idea of entrepreneurship, but resists selling
a company who is devoted to their mission, but who has avoided asking if customers value it as well (or as much as they do)
a new leader who loves the idea of being a visionary, but struggles with the mundane responsibilities of execution and/or delegation
And so when we see the knight of cups in business, we are invited to marry the vision with reality.
This absolutely does not mean to abandon the dream. Rather, it asks you if you can be devoted to the vision enough to pressure test it, to challenge it, to refine it, and to allow it to evolve.
Additionally, I believe that the knight of cups asks if you can fall in love with the process (and the work required), just as much as you may be idealizing the outcomes. Sometimes we are not actually devoted to our business, but to the success we imagine will come. And when that’s the case, we can attach our worth (or the worth of the business) to the success we imagine is possible.
True performance (inclusive of success) is a byproduct of the work and the relationships that we have with our work.
5 questions to ask yourself when you see the knight of cups in business
What are you actually in love with? (Is it the work, the business, the mission, the people you are serving, the freedom, the identity, the possibility of success, or something else? There are no wrong answers here.)
Where are you potentially romanticizing your work, team or business? Are there perhaps any realities that you are reluctant to acknowledge because they threaten your vision?
What would devotion look like if you removed the promise of recognition or success? (this is maybe the most important question to ask yourself)
What is reality presenting to you, maybe even trying to teach you, that your vision is overlooking?
Are you willing to let this business evolve into something different from what you originally imagined? (remember, different could be even better)
The immature knight of cups pursues the dream because they are enchanted by it. The mature knight of cups pursues the dream because the work itself is worthy of their devotion. ✨
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