Wisest of Judges–
You bravely make the choices
that others run from
Playing Chess with the King
Being taught the art of war
with no mercy
He shows me how the pieces move
and how to set the board
and maneuver
He suggests things to look for
and avoid
then defeats me each time
He lives for the battle
and the game.
Ever ready to compete
with full force
The suit of Swords represents thought, ideas, plans and conflicts. Kings are the leaders, the shakers, the initiatory force or person that get things moving. The King of Swords is a great military commander and an insightful strategist. As shrewd as he is tho, he is a man of action and will often bring his full intensity to bear on whatever cause has most recently gathered his attention. His impulse is to act with thought as opposed to reflect and then act, an important distinction. He is a shrewd judge of character and offers great advice on practical matters such as business and law. He tends to have a strong moral code and does well as long as he does not find himself in a situation where he has to act contrary to it. Consider Javert in Les Miserables. As long as he is convinced that is is correct in his pursuit of Jean Valjean then he is able to continue his pursuit unceasingly. However when he is forced to question his own sense of right and wrong, he cannot survive it. The King of Swords also has strong debating skills with a mastery of language use.
Astrological Correspondence: 21° Taurus – 20° Gemini Elemental: Fire of Air – Taurean rigidity and steadfastness mixed with Gemini’s sociability and interest in communication makes for a very dynamic combination. This individual will want to test himself against any new idea or concept that comes his way not because he is open to changing his viewpoint as to prove that what he believes can hold its own against any comers. He has a strong drive to succeed in every endeavour but to bring as many others along for the ride as possible. At his best he is a loyal and steadfast friend. At his worst he is a harsh martinet who will place his standards and moral code above that of friendship.
I Ching Correspondence: 32)Hêng-Duration
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The trigram for Thunder is over that of the Wind. Thunder and Wind are often thought of as going together and this hexagram likewise indicates a long enduring relationship. For something to endure it is important that priority is placed on the purpose and ideals on which the relationship was based from the beginning. When this is done, any conflicts become secondary. For a relationship to last there cannot be stagnation and something new must be continually brought to the table. While neither thunder nor wind may be thought of as subsisting for long, the weather patterns that bring them are continuous.
When the King of Swords occurs in a reading there may be a legal or business matter that we need advice on. It may represent any type of problem where a logical and analytical mind can help us see the right course of action. It is definitely a time when swift action is necessary. It may also represent a time when we need to take responsibility for choices that have been made even if the choice was to delegate the matter to someone else. The King of Swords may also represent someone who has come into ourlife who is both logical and somewhat autocratic. This person gives great advice when asked but we may often feel judged in this person’s presence.
When the King of Swords is reversed, then either we or someone in our environment may be having serious control issues. The reversed King of Swords likes to throw his weight around and fully expects people to fall into line and may be quite harsh and cutting when this does not happen. There is a strong streak of cruelty in the reversal of this card and control and arrogance is everything to this person at this time. The King of Swords reversed may also refer to someone who is looked upon as an authority who finds himself unable to make a decision. This may have happened because there is nothing in his rule book that has prepared him for present circumstances.
“You have to systematically create confusion, it sets creativity free. Everything that is contradictory creates life”
― Salvador Dalí
I trust contradiction and paradox. It’s comforting to know that as soon as one point of view is expressed, an equal and opposite run arrives especially as we increase the scope of the question. When we are confused our mind becomes open to possibility and imagination.
Don’t get me wrong. I can enjoy and appreciate certainty. Some people wear it well and it seems to look good on them. Of course you look again and it starts looking like the Emperor’s new clothes… brilliant garments he was taught to believe existed when in reality he parades around naked…secure in the fact that no one will gainsay him. Yet children always know or those with the heart of a child. The child hears people admiring the Emperor’s clothes and gets more and more confused until he speaks out his confusion and people see that the Emperor’s clothes, his certainties never existed in the first place.
So I will continue speaking paradox and avoiding certainty. I may never get dressed but at least I’ll be creative.
Blessings, G
“Your problem is you are too busy holding on to your unworthiness.”
― Ram Dass
For too long I considered myself unworthy. I felt I was unworthy of the family I was born into. I felt I was unworthy of the intelligence I had and the job I had. I have been given so much without putting that much effort into it that it was easy to feel that way. Some people may see that as a goad to do more, be more, become more. I found it to be a weight that all too nearly collapsed me. My drive wasn’t to accomplish, my drive was to understand. I wanted to learn more and not so much academic subjects. I chafed at that during my years at University all too much and found that I was missing my classes to help friends with theirs that I considered more interesting at the time. In my mathematics and computer courses I was more results driven than method driven which frustrated the teacher’s and ultimately added to my feelings of unworthiness. Each prescribed path I tried turned out to be another round hole to fit my square edges into. I kept looking to find an authority, some one who would tell me how to do it only to realize that I was ultimately looking for another authority to rebel against. Also another chance to prove to myself my own unworthiness.
At some point that changed. I stopped trying to follow any path but my own. On our own path, nobody is unworthy. By following my own path I could show others how to do the same. By following my own path, I have come to realize that the only person who could possibly say whether or not the things I’ve done hold value is myself. If I can live my life and communicate to others that that is our main goal in life, to live it and follow wherever our path leads than worthiness stops being a question. On my own path there is only worthiness.
Blessings, G
“A poet makes himself a visionary through a long, boundless, and systematized disorganization of all the senses. All forms of love, of suffering, of madness; he searches himself, he exhausts within himself all poisons, and preserves their quintessences. Unspeakable torment, where he will need the greatest faith, a superhuman strength, where he becomes all men the great invalid, the great criminal, the great accursed–and the Supreme Scientist! For he attains the unknown! Because he has cultivated his soul, already rich, more than anyone! He attains the unknown, and if, demented, he finally loses the understanding of his visions, he will at least have seen them! So what if he is destroyed in his ecstatic flight through things unheard of, unnameable: other horrible workers will come; they will begin at the horizons where the first one has fallen!”
― Arthur Rimbaud
I left my sanity behind
to better see life
without constraint of barriers
that ‘good sense’ bring.
I laughed with fools at kings
in the mirror
and they giggled
smiling coquettishly in their gowns
like call boys enticing a trick.
In streets of red light
I entertained a duchess
but would not take money
for all the hours of wisdom
she gave me.
I pissed on flowers
and watched them grow into light poles
in colours’ ever shifting landscape
I crawled on my belly
through bits of jagged broken tears
to bring back this butterfly for you.
— G A Rosenberg
Sometimes of late in my art and on this blog I operate a kind of cyber Moulin Rouge, where my different aspects, come on stage and perform a strip tease, exposing themselves…Some of the deepest strangest aspects have yet to emerge and some of the brightest as well.
“Transcendence restores humor. Spirit restores humor. Suddenly, smiling returns. Too many representatives of too many movements – even many very good movements, such as feminism, environmentalism, meditation, spiritual studies – seem to lack humor altogether. In other words, they lack lightness, they lack a distance from themselves, a distance from the ego and its grim game of forcing others to conform to its contours.”
— Ken Wilber
Humour allows us to see things that we normally take seriously from a different perspective. This allows us to stretch our mind. If we can’t laugh at what we hold sacred then what does that reveal? If something holds truth does finding humour in it take away from that truth? Can it be that it reveals to us something that we have not fully understood or integrated? From what i have experienced, the more aware a person is, the more they smile, laugh and jest. They have examined what they know and what they believe to be true from all angles so they have discovered the funny parts. Contrariwise, those who take things all fired seriously and resent or condemn humour towards their belief (or lack of it, most atheists (as opposed to agnostics who tend to be fairly humorous) are not only dogmatic as hell but oh so very serious about it. This also tends to be true of fundamentalists of all stripes. Hmmm it seems that an all or nothing approach towards a faith sucks the humour right out of a room.
Blessings, G
Click on images to see full-sized
Dimensional Crossroads – the Other Side by G A Rosenberg
King of Swords (Revised) by G A Rosenberg
