According to The Pictorial Key to the Tarot by A.E. Waite, the King of Swords is described as the following:
He sits in judgment, holding the unsheathed sign of his suit. He recalls, of course, the conventional Symbol of justice in the Trumps Major, and he may represent this virtue, but he is rather the power of life and death, in virtue of his office.
Divinatory Meanings: Whatsoever arises out of the idea of judgment and all its connexions-power, command, authority, militant intelligence, law, offices of the crown, and so forth.
Reversed: Cruelty, perversity, barbarity, perfidy, evil intention.
The King of Swords shows us a bold figure on his throne. This is the king in question, and he holds one large, powerful sword before him.
The suit of swords pertains to intellect, and with the king being the powerful leader of this suit, we can think of him as representing “militant intelligence”.
The idea of “militant intelligence” might remind us of a highly structured school environment. Of course, not all intelligence is militant, and not all methods of education are structured in a way that supports a master goal over the needs of an individual student.
Some of us, however, may have had encounters with various school systems that were on the more militant side of things—and were therefore less than positive.
Education is a wonderful thing, and those who have been able to access it are deeply fortunate. However, this fact does not counteract the truth that education can be stressful.
Education Done Your Way
Let’s imagine the King of Swords as an intense headmaster or principal. If he is in charge of our learning, he would want us to stick to his schedule and deliver work that he can place a number on to judge us by.
Metrics like these can be tough for learners, especially when those learners are young people. Even those of us who thrived in a school environment and enjoyed our education likely felt stress at the prospect of being graded on certain work by certain deadlines.
Once we are out of school, though, what happens if our main association with education is stress and worry?
We likely are glad to have left our schooling behind us. It is probable that we aren’t planning on taking any more classes anytime soon. But, at the same time, we know that education is good for us. It can help better us as people and make the viewpoint with which we see the world a little broader.
Luckily, when it comes to educating ourselves as adults, we have more than these two options of militant learning or no learning at all. A third choice reveals itself: we can decide to become the leaders of our own learning.
There are many ways that we can create a new education for ourselves without paying any tuition at all. We can get a card from our local library and begin to check out books that interest us. While we are there, we can hop on the library computers, free from the distractions we might have at home, and do some research to broaden our horizons.
We can engage someone in our lives in conversation about something that they are skilled or well-versed in. We might watch the news, take one of many free online courses, or create a journal of words or topics that we encounter that we would like to research and better understand.
Take some time today to jot some notes about things you would like to learn more about if you could attend a special, free school curated specifically for you. Then get started.
Being Your Own Headmaster
When the King of Swords revealed himself as your card today, he did not come to take control of your intelligence and learning. He came to tell you to be your own kind of King of Swords, taking charge of educating yourself and gathering intelligence in a way that feels good to you.
When you take some time for yourself today, also focus on building up positive associations with your learning. Before you know it, you might be the pupil, teacher, and headmaster at the School of You—and that means you set the rules.
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