King of Swords upright
Sword held vertical, gaze direct, ornate throne but austere robes. The most cerebral of the four kings.
Decide on the principle. The King of Swords sets policy and lives by it; flexibility in application, rigidity in the principle.
King of Swords reversed
Reversed, the principle calcifies - dogma, or the abuse of intellectual power.
Keywords
- intellectual authority
- principled decision
- structure
- clear policy
- judgment
Where this reading comes from
Meaning authored from the Rider-Waite-Smith reader tradition rather than copied from any single modern source.
Common questions
- What does King of Swords mean?
- King on a throne against pale sky - authority earned through thinking carefully. Sword held vertical, gaze direct, ornate throne but austere robes. The most cerebral of the four kings.
- What does King of Swords mean reversed?
- Reversed, the principle calcifies - dogma, or the abuse of intellectual power.
- Is King of Swords a good card to draw?
- King of Swords belongs to the swords suit, which deals with thought, conflict and truth. No card is simply good or bad; what it means depends on the question and where it lands in the spread.
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