The King sits upon his throne looking straight at the viewer, the only court card in the deck to do so. This suggests a level of awareness not present in the other cards and therefore present in whomever the card may represent. The winds behind him are indicative of the air element, so strong in the other cards now stand still in this card .This stillness of mind is indicative of awareness. It is not the blank stillness of a dullard, but the pure awareness of the moment. His posture on the throne is one of confident relaxed authority, his sword resting on his shoulder and no longer in a threatening position as one finds in the other air Court Cards.
The sky is a brilliant blue as are his robes and the strength of these blues represents the King's ability to communicate his ideas in a precise and straightforward manner. The cloak of red suggests his ability to move quickly and with passion, should the need arise. The purple cloak above it shows that his is more likely to use his royalty and divine authority before it comes to taking aggressive action.
His crown has a cherubic face adorning the front showing his divine ordination, even though his attributes are more mental in nature. His realm is that of air, thought and connection to divine mind through his mastery of stillness. He is a fellow you would not want to play chess against!
The butterflies and faeries on the back of the throne link him to transformation and magical realms, even though this is clearly behind him and he not a fellow to be lost in idle daydreaming. He accesses them as a resource to augment his already considerable mental faculties. Such dreamy connections are better left to the court of cups, for him they are a source of potent information.
For me the card represents the witnessing quality available to us when the mind has quietened and we are no longer blown by the winds. That stillness of mind cannot be overlooked as it permits a great level of control over ones reactions to inner and outer stimuli. Last night I met with a metaphysical meet up group and was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the company and the thoughtfulness of all present.
One element that came up several times was the difficulty in keeping ones feelings and boundaries intact when venturing into the deeper territories of the psyche. For me I have been grateful for the fruits of my own meditation practice as this has given me the tools to quiet my own mind and find space to look upon every factor without being unduly influenced. The King of swords is the perfect teacher of that state. You cannot imagine him being ruffled by anything that appeared before him. He would simply look upon it as a phenomenon and act accordingly, be it a fairy or a fearsome beast from the subconscious.
I spent a while trying to find an example in my life to date that I could put my finger on and state he or she is like the King of Swords. In the end he is a perfect exemplar of that mind state of stillness that can serve so well, in inner or outer life.
