King of Swords At A Glance
Keywords: Truth, unbiased thought, authority, power, intellect, morality, strict, cold, controlling, dictator, irrational, cruel
Season: Spring
Element: Air (thoughts, ideas and communication)
King of Swords Tarot Card Description
The King of Swords is the fourteenth card in the suit of Swords within tarot. The original artwork of this card features a regal king sitting on his throne. He lifts a large double-edged sword in his right hand. The right hand or dominant hand represents the conscious and the fact that he wields the sword with this hand shows he has total control over his thoughts, emotions and actions.
The King is the highest Swords card so it shows that his thoughts, emotions and actions have merged to form a cohesive sense of clear morals and objective truth. It is from this mindset of mastery that the King of Swords operates from at all times.
King of Swords Upright Meaning
The King of Swords like all cards in tarot discusses common themes in our lives, our personality as well as our emotional and mental processes. However being a court card it also has an extra feature: all court cards point to a real person in our lives. Who they refer to can be worked out by combining the status (Page, Knight, Queen or King) and the attributes of its suit.
The status is King, so this means someone that we know who has masculine energy (not necessarily gender) and has a classic protector role either in their job or in their personal connection with us.
Swords are the suit of air which represents the mind, thoughts, ideas and communication. This means a person who is bold and confident when they speak and highly intelligent. The King of Swords advises us to seek out this person as they could help us with our current query. When we meet the King of Swords in our tarot readings and its artwork is upright it is suggesting we have a well- formed mindset around our situation.
The King of Swords implies we have spent a long time thinking about and planning this. The advice of this card is to trust in the plan we made and our abilities will be more than enough for us to be successful in this endeavor.
“Be kind, be fair, be honest, be true, and all of these things will come back to you.” - Unknown
King of Swords Reversed Meaning
When reversed we see a lot of the negative sides of this card if the attributes mentioned in the upright section are taken to excess. Intelligence if detached completely from emotion could become cold and manipulative. Authority and power could be abused and morals could be warped or corrupted over time.
As with all tarot cards this could be signifying these traits within us but being a court card it cold also symbolize a real person we know in or lives. To see this card reversed is a forewarning to assess and scale back if we see these tendencies within us or to build and maintain healthy boundaries if we see these traits in others.
“People inspire you, or they drain you. Pick them wisely.” - Hans F. Hasen
King of Swords: Yes or No
The King of Swords is a yes card. Either upright or reversed it suggests we have our emotional ducks all in a row and can take on pretty much anything we set our mind too.
However when reversed it is still a yes but the King of Swords also lets us know that we will need to work on maintaining our mental health and making sure we are still clear mentally so we can complete the tasks involved after we say yes.
Let’s Break Down the King of Swords In Our Lives
How the King of Swords’ advice changes based on the specific questions or areas of life we have asked the tarot.
King of Swords In Love
Receiving the King of Swords in love readings is a good sign that our thoughts and emotions are aligned and we are acting from a place of cohesive truth. If single this can look like open communication and upfront honesty regarding what we want from a potential relationship. If we’re in a relationship it can look like opening up and revealing more of ourselves because we truly trust our partner.
Reversed it can signify an unbalanced relationship where one partner is overly harsh or critical of the other. This abusive behavior tends to escalate overtime and needs to be corrected as soon as possible. It can suggest therapy at this time or both partners seeking expert advice to bring this relationship back to a thriving state.
King of Swords With Money
When we receive the King of Swords in money queries it is advising us to think logically and have a very practical plan laid out before us. At this time we must be incredibly methodical and self-disciplined with our finances in order to achieve a bigger pay off later. The sacrifices will be worth it if we can endure them.
Reversed it can suggest there is a chaotic quality to our finances lie for example an uneven pay schedule and/or erratic and emotional spending. There is a complete lack of self-discipline when it comes to spending which if not corrected soon may spiral out of control. There could also be growing debt that is beginning to get out of hand.
King of Swords At Work
The King of Swords in career questions can suggest a firm but fair superior or boss. It could even be implying a promotion is in the works for us and we will need to inhabit these attributes to accept the role. It can also mean that applying these traits in our current role will help us get ahead in the long term.
Reversed it says we are being much too hard on ourselves. We have a lot on our plates and feel resentful about our work load. However when we look at the cause we see it is because we chose to accept the additional work, tasks or responsibilities and now we can’t manage it.
It advises us to temporarily endure the tasks and complete them as we promised we would but in the future we should take this into account the next time we condor accepting additional tasks or responsibilities.
King of Swords With Others
The King of Swords regarding others can suggest we are given a position of authority or that our honed skills and expertises are realized on-masse. We are valued and admired by society because of our contributions to it. This can look like graduating university, or holding a valued career or position in society like a doctor or lawyer and all the social praise that comes with it.
Reversed it can suggest that there is an abuse of the power that out our authority or position gives us. A dictator boss or dirty cop for example. These are just extreme examples of this vibe but the takeaway from the King of Swords reversed is an abuse of power by us or someone we know.
King of Swords With Self
When we ask questions about our own psyche and receive the King of Swords it can mean that our mental wellness is soon to improve and that our self-esteem will soon reflect this. The King of Swords says we always need to maintain the healing habits we do to make sure our mental wellness continues to improve.
Reversed it can mean we have a very warped view of ourselves. We may have emotionally detached and ‘numbed out’ in an attempt to avoid emotional pain. This card when reversed says we need to begin a self-care or healing journey to address the self-limiting beliefs that keep us from achieving our dreams and goals. We should start this as soon as possible and make it a high priority.
King of Swords As Feelings
The King of Swords feels like the pride we feel when somebody recognizes or skills and/or knowledge base and comes to us for advice.
We may also feel imposter syndrome too but this is unfounded as we are very adept at what we do and the service we provide is highly valued. This gives us a strong feeling of emotional security and confidence.
