The Pictorial Key to the Tarot

Swords
KingHe 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.