King of Swords
The king of swords in the tarot's Minor Arcana: a king seated in judgment, holding his sword unsheathed. A. E. Waite read it as judgment, power, command and authority.
Meaning
In Waite's words: "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."
What does the King of Swords mean?
Waite's meanings are "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". His list of additional meanings adds "A lawyer, senator, doctor", and reversed, "A bad man; also a caution to put an end to a ruinous lawsuit".
In older decks
The Italian suit is spade, swords, among the marks of the earliest cards in the British Museum's catalogue of 1876. Papus reads it as "A dark, bad man. He is a soldier, a powerful enemy, who must be distrusted."
Read next
- Next in Tarot cardsAce of PentaclesThe ace of pentacles in the tarot's Minor Arcana: a hand from a cloud holding up a pentacle. A. E. Waite read it as perfect contentment, felicity and gold.
- The same shape in Christian symbolsINRIINRI are the initials of the Latin for “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews”, the charge the Gospel of John says Pilate had fixed to Christ’s cross. Crucifixes in the Western churches show the four letters on a small board above his head.
See also
The Fool, The Magician, The High Priestess, The Empress, The Emperor, The Hierophant.
Sources
- The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, by A. E. Waite, William Rider & Son, London, 1910 (the sacred-texts.com transcription, on the Internet Archive), The Lesser Arcana; Some Additional Meanings of the Lesser Arcana
- The Tarot of the Bohemians, by Papus, Chapman & Hall, London, 1896, translated by A. P. Morton (scan on the Internet Archive), The Divining Tarot, second lesson: the minor arcana
- A Descriptive Catalogue of Playing and Other Cards in the British Museum, by W. H. Willshire, Trustees of the British Museum, London, 1876 (scan on the Internet Archive), General history: the marks of the suits
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols formed from crosses, letters and numbers or squares and rectangles.
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed September 30, 2026. How we research
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