King of Swords

UPRIGHT

The King of Swords sits on a throne carved with butterflies, his sword held upright, his gaze level. He is intellectual authority — the judge, the strategist, the ethicist, the man whose word carries weight because he has earned the right to give it. The card honors clear thinking applied to public life.

REVERSED

Reversed, the King of Swords is authority misused — the lawyer who serves only winning, the leader whose principles have become a performance, the patriarch whose judgment has slipped into condescension. The card can also name the querent's own use of logic to bully rather than illuminate.

Return to the full deck, or draw the cards and see King of Swords in context.