King of Swords

The King of Swords has a lifetime of learning behind him, and is now a grownup man with a grownup mind. He is described by commentators as determined, authorita- tive, professional, commanding, experienced, educated, judicious, skillful, rational, assertive, discerning, tactical, analytical, accomplished, articulate, respectable, philosophical, and tough-minded. He might be an diplomat, a dean, a doctor, a lawyer, or a judge, but he also might be an autodidact who needs no certification to be seen as an authority in his field. He can be a self-made man who has earned his position and identity. He can make hard choices like the Emperor, but he can and will explain them. He is, in Castaneda’s terms, ‘a man of knowledge, claiming knowledge as power.’ All four Kings have specific life lessons to learn, that will pull their whole character together to optimize the best qualities of their suit. This King wants adaptive learning and thought. He must grasp that even what there is to be known evolves while we are learning what used to be true. He cannot be a know-it-all, but must retain a degree of humility when it comes to his lifelong learning. Pedantry and inflexibility get broken by forces of change. Arrogance just gets embarrassed. Authority is a thing for authors, and people find out when you don’t really have it. It’s good to move around, to flex our better judgment and try out our different attitudes. Even the path that’s most proper to us takes turns and winds around obstacles. To truly follow that path is to keep the same goal but also keep changing directions as needed. Purpose and nimbleness function as a team. This is what we become with our lifetime of educational experience, our database of knowledge and algorithms, the tricks that we’ve picked up on the way, our contacts and repertoire, our assembly of methods and strategies, our masteries and our proficiencies, our cognitive and attitudinal toolkits and skill sets, our collections of knowledge and wits. These slowly become second nature. We do not need to accumulate everything that we need to get by, and the eclectics have the least crap to carry around in their heads. Sometimes it’s enough just to have the right connections, or to know the way to the useful resources. This accumulation of wisdom is analogous to momentum and is as good as accumulated mass or energy. Knowing how to take hold of a thing when we need it is as good as owning the thing. We learn to interact and cooperate with our environments, even while we are making changes to them. In particular, the Swords are most concerned with our social and technological surrounds. The King must know how things work, from natural law to black markets. Where he cannot be fully informed, at least he knows a guy. He wouldn’t think himself above having consigliere with superior knowledge or wisdom. The Yijing counterpart, Gua 32, Continuity or Duration, embodies this dynamic of interactive adaptation while maintaining a sense of purpose and direction. Even if we are disciplined, we still have the freedom between disciplines. If we are learned, we can still admit error and do some needed unlearning. This means to know our own anti- cognitive processes, that defend what we have already learned from the newer and better wisdoms. Thoughts are for using and not for defending. It’s not vacillation to change when change is made for the better, especially when the culture or world keeps changing. The model for the Gua is the weather, which only seems to come and go, but in fact is a dynamic system of climate circling the globe. This Gua works in larger contexts, as does a king over larger realms than the palace. He is connected to the culture at large, and to history. Perseverance here is not always predictability, or continuing a sameness: it’s continuously upgrading our life skills. This King is in an interesting position in that he is arbiter of the rules and laws that he is also charged with making. Hypocrisy here sets a lousy example, so he must be careful with ethics. Principles, standards and justice mean something here, but so does their right application, which returns us again to adaptive flexibility. He can stay true to ideals and long-term goals while modifying his means to those ends. The law has both letter and spirit, and the king must make both work together. While most law takes a worst case scenario and generalizes this to all times and places (just to be fair), the best government is still that which governs the least. This asks for integrity and conscien- tiousness from the King. Consistency, then, is a bit more important than constancy. Over a long reign with many changes, the principles evolve to continue to make sense.