King of Swords
Mordred
Aw, man! Really! No kidding!
The King of Swords is one of those cards where each deck, each author writing about Tarot, and each reader has his or her own unique spin on what meanings are most truly representative and therefore accurate. And then, to assign Mordred (more about him toward the end) to the card. Man!
Okay, so here are some of the interpretations I’ve gotten from others:
~ the bloody bastard who never knows when to stop fighting
~ the ruthless and daring one (likely male)
~ one (usually a man or someone of strong masculine energy) who sits in judgement
~ the innovative but probably unpredictable leader
~ the revolutionary
So if any of those interpretations mesh with how it seems you need to be in your life, (or represent the energy that’s intersecting/interfering with your life), then pay attention and act accordingly – i.e., id it’s about someone else, accept that your perceptions about the person are TRUE! The figure out what to do from there.
I did a shamanic journey to determine how I should generally interpret this card for my clients. A spirit guide in the form of a great back and silver dragon came by. It said, “This is what you need to know about the King of Swords. The King of Swords has three major characteristics:
“First, he is so idealistic he often lets his head drift away into the clouds and he becomes flakey, which can cause him to fail.
“Second, he is so passionate he often loses track of what’s sensible, appropriate − or even legal − and he blows his own ass up by getting crazy-emotional about what he wants or hopes for, which can cause him to fail.
“As a result of the first and second issues, he has actually learned from the example of the Queen of Swords and he has FORCED himself to develop the will to become strategic about what he wants.
“He asks himself what he would need to do in order to be true to his highest ideals AND his deepest passions. He determines how they would blend together, refines his goals, and then develops a specific, detailed plan that incorporates every major step necessary to take him from where he is to where his ideals and passions would have him be.
“And then he exerts the will to hold himself to that plan, day by day, until higher ideals or deeper passions cause him to rethink his goals and start the whole thing over again.”
Hard work, but worth the effort.
Would your life be different if you had done that, and held yourself to it, twenty years ago? It’s never too late to start.
About Mordred: pretty much everyone knows him as the bastard son and only child of Arthur who, out of evil or just out of spite, plotted and schemed to displace The King and, in the process, brought down Camelot. Maybe that is how it was. There are a number of variations on that theme throughout the tales. But in one version of the legends, Arthur and Mordred were reconciled in the end; they died fighting side by side against foreign invaders. Maybe so.
What are your highest ideals? What are your deepest passions? Where do they intersect and support each other? What are the steps that will carry you to them? How can you begin those steps TODAY?
Bright blessings, high ideals, passion and success!
Quote for the day: “Quote me as saying I was misquoted.” ~ Groucho Marx
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