king of swords rev

nisaba

If you don 't do reversals and the card was reversed anyway, what's going on is that the card is shouting at you. It's trying to draw attention to itself any way it can.

It may also be telling you that the flow of energy between you might be reversed: the King Swords behaviours you might expect from your friend should it have been upright, might actually be how you'll find yourself behaving towards them, for whatever reason.

Kings Swords are about mastery of the intellect. They are highly intelligent people, and usually highly educated. If their life was such that they didn't pick up much formal education, they will have kept themselves well-informed anyway: watching documentaries, reading newspapers and educated books, building up informal bodies of knowledge.

In their friendships and work-relationships, the King Swords type will be an obvious mentor or trainer. They like positions of command, but not (like the King Wands) out of ambition so much, but out of a desire to show and share their intelligence and knowledge with others. They tend to build up clusters of acolytes around them, people who think they are marvellous, who hang on their every word. They are flattered by approval and don't really make good trainers because they enjoy the dependence of their acolytes on them, so have little or no motivation to bring them up to speed. they like to be the repositories of knowledge more than they like to be the enablers of others to find their own knowledge.

When a King Swords type is in a negative pattern, their thinking will be along these lines:

1) I know I am very intelligent.
2) I am more intelligent than most people around me.
3) Because I am more iontelligent, I k now better than them what is good for them.
4) Therefore they should do exactly as I say.

Along that line of thinking, the King Swords can stop being the ideal mentor that he is when he is positive, and end up being a controller, even an abusive controller.
 

Nova

nisaba,
setting what books say asside, here is what I have found to be key notions of a King of Swords reversed that is felled, or chasing you.
So, not knowing what is happening in your life, perhaps take warning.

Fallen bird, bird in a cage, air plane flight that doesn't go well, to put it mildly, King Lear, his loss of his daughter, the way she was tethered to him etc. Sick or dead bird literally. Puppet master, beware if you are being manipulated and be ready to say "no" and/or be ready for the pain of rejection.
You may be the caged bird and being manipulated to someone else' end. If you are a means to an end, walk away.

The fact that you place such high regards to the upright cards only underscores the special attention you are seeing with a non-conformed card.
 

nisaba

deleted: superfluous to needs
 

Nova

Yeah, I was thinking that exactly when I read, and re-read the intro part.
I like your response which delved into the possible egotistical aspect, as anti-mentor, made a lot of sense
 

Ronia

Thanks for this, nisaba! I don't do reversals but am currently involved in someone else's love story with this King and am struggling with defining him and guessing his actions. What you've written very closely resembles my feelings toward this King. I do like him though. Maybe more than many other readers I've talked to. I think he is a very interesting companion. :)
 

nisaba

Hell, yeah! You just don't want to get on the wrong side of him.
 

Ronia

I think each of the Tarot Kings would be a bad enemy ;) Maybe this one looks a bit more threatening because he will act fully conscious and clear minded. No emotions to be used as an excuse. Which is precisely why I think I like him. :)
 

papercut

oh boy, my partner is a king of swords type ... I feel like I've become quite the expert on this card over the time I've been in this relationship, lol.

Reversed, this king is the most judgemental of all the courts. He carries around a very specific idea of how people should behave, and in that sense he is quite idealistic. But if people fail to live up to his ideal, regardless of the reason, he will see it as a personal affront. And while he is so judgemental towards others, he considers himself to be above reproach.

At his best, this king is renowned for not getting blinded by emotions, but at his worst he is someone who lacks compassion. There is no way to appeal to the emotions of a king of swords rx. Say for instance, you didnt get that promotion you wanted, and you whine to the KoS, wanting some tea and sympathy - forget about it! This king will likely shrug his shoulders and say "well, you shouldn't have taken so many sick days last year."

No one gets a free pass in his book, and he rarely, if ever gives anyone the benefit of the doubt.
 

WondererW

Hi there! I've been logging in and reading all your wonderful posts for years and they've been really helpful with regards to giving me insights into my own cards. This is my first post, however. And I would love your insights into what the King of Swords reversed means for me. I have gotten the Tower sometimes when I contact my mentor out of the blue, and a day later, he turns up as the King of Swords reversed. I did once have feelings for him which he rejected, so we keep it strictly about work. We have not seen each other for at least a year (only ever professionally) and every few months I might contact him for work related advice. He was once a wonderful and kind man (King of Wands is his card) to me in a great time of need. Is he angry with me for contacting him? Is that why is sometimes comes up as King of Swords reversed?
 

Emma313

King swords reversed = nasty dishonest lawyer type, tit for tat turned from man to toddler

King of swords upright = trustworthy professional academic man