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Minor Arcana · Suit of Swords · Court card
King of Swords
King · Swords
A card that falls upside down is read reversed.
Key words
↑ UprightSound judgmentAuthorityPrincipled decisions
↓ ReversedPower misusedCold crueltyClever manipulation
What it means
↑ Upright
He sits facing straight out, sword upright, and Waite links him to the Justice card: judgment, command, the authority of a trained mind. He may be someone whose decision carries weight in your affairs, who rules by reasons rather than feelings. Taken as advice, he asks the same of you: gather the facts, state your principle, decide, and stand by it.
↓ Reversed
Intelligence turned into a weapon: authority used to punish, an argument built to win rather than to be right, a promise broken behind a reasonable face. If this is someone over you, keep a record and do not yield to logic designed to corner you. If the temptation is yours, remember that being clever is not the same as being just.
What's on the card
The king sits facing directly out of the card on a throne decorated with butterflies and crescent moons, an unsheathed sword held upright, tilted a little to one side, in his right hand. Behind him low clouds drift, two birds fly, and a line of trees stands still. His blue robe and the butterflies belong to air; the straight-on pose is commonly read as impartiality, and the drawn blade as the power to decide.
Waite's meaning, 1910
Upright
Whatsoever arises out of the idea of judgment and all its connections—power, command, authority, militant intelligence, law, offices of the crown, and so forth.
Reversed
Cruelty, perversity, barbarity, perfidy, evil intention.
A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910), Part III.