Day 6: King of Swords

Day 6 of Desert Divination: Weekend 2 is upon us and we’re back with The King of Swords.

As the days roll on and I’m trying to keep up with everything, blogging about it has become harder and harder. I’m still divining the cards every day, but getting the chance to post about them has become almost impossible to fit in on the day of the pull.

As I write this, the card featured was pulled a day previous. It immediately resonated. The Kings of the deck are associated with Fire. Swords are associated with Air. This is a card of quickness, but not carelessness. Oftentimes speed can betray quality and that’s not the vibe here. The King of Swords is motivated and thoughtful. It is on a mission to accomplish, one might even say conquer. Being in a position of authority, making the calls that other people might not want to make, and acting from a place of measured reason is exactly what the King of Swords is here for, and there’s no second guessing. This is a decisive, clear, communicative leader who is here to make a meaningful difference for their kingdom.

On this particular day, I brought out a deck that I am currently retiring. It has begun to stick and I don’t like reading for other people with cards that stick. I have a staff of 14 here and I let each of them (if they so chose) pick a card to take home with them. One of them pulled a card that made him recoil. He had a drastic, unfavorable, reaction to it. It was the 10 of swords. This is a card of endings. It’s final and it usually conjures some uncomfortable emotions in the person who pulls it. We ended up having a really long talk about the card and what it means and when I was talking him through it, the King of Swords was present the whole time. When I also considered that the card pulled was of the suit of Swords while the King pulled earlier that morning, was also of Swords, I knew it was a conversation that needed to happen.

Sometimes the message that needs to be conveyed isn’t a pleasant one. It takes a certain kind of mental toughness and communication skill to deliver hard messages with authenticity and care, while not enabling or coddling. Conjuring these archetypes and the correspondeces of this card guided me to be mindful of that while I walked another soul through some tough thoughts and feelings. One of my favorite things about the cards is that they offer points of focus. I am forever grateful to the wisdom and guidance they share.

Now Go. Love.