King of Cups

Element: Water

Imagery: A calm king seated on a throne surrounded by water.

General Themes: Emotional mastery, compassion, balance, wisdom.

The King of Cups Upright

Like the Queen of Cups, this card asks you to keep a cool head even as emotions run high. Notice the figure calmly sitting on a throne of stone. His seat reflects enduring stability, even when the emotional tide rushes in. The Queen of Cups wants you to embody your feelings and let them guide you on your journey. The King of Cups, however, wants you to regulate your emotions. Yes, still listen to them, but emotional regulation is key to this card.

This king wants you to likewise be firm with boundaries, especially with the situations or people causing any emotional overload. The first step to healthy emotional regulation is looking at the things that can trigger overwhelming sensations. This isn’t about being harsh in establishing boundaries, but about compassionately establishing energetic balance so that you can handle the ups and downs of life with minimal emotional upheaval.

The King of Cups Reversed

Ouch. This reversal comes when you’ve been keeping a tight lid on your emotions. Maybe you feel like you can’t express what you need to, you’re afraid to feel what you need to, or you’re numb and don’t know how to unfreeze your emotions. Maybe you feel like you need to be strong and not share what you’re feeling when others are down. That doesn’t help anyone.

Don’t be afraid to feel what you need to feel. Express what you need to. It isn’t healthy to keep things inside. At the same time, this doesn’t need to be a dramatic confrontation or emotional outburst. Express yourself, but don’t drown in your emotions. Notice how much smaller they feel once you’ve let them out.

Use these feelings to inform, guide, and heal yourself. They will tell you where you need to go if you listen to them in a healthy and balanced way.

The Bruja’s Guide to Tarot is the divination sister to the scholarly The Bruja Professor, a witchy take on literature, the occult & pop culture, and Enchantment Learning & Living, an inspirational blog celebrating life’s simple pleasures, everyday mysticism, and delectable recipes that are guaranteed to stir the kitchen witch in you.

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King of Wands

Element: Fire

Imagery: A confident king holding a wand, often with fire imagery.

General Themes: Vision, leadership, inspiration, bold action.

The King of Wands Upright

This is a lively card! It wants you to embrace your inner entrepreneur. Where do you see opportunity? Growth? Tremendous potential? Follow that passion. You have the vision and the fire to make things happen.

Like the Queen of Wands, the King of Wands is a charismatic figure, but his focus is more on the external world. He wants you to use your fire to create and innovate. While the queen embodies fiery wand energy, the king here directs it. Don’t waste time overthinking things—just go for it. The energy for your success is there if only you apply yourself.

His message is clear: Dream. Plan. Create. Repeat.

The King of Wands Reversed

The King of Wands reversed is more focused on your internal life. This card serves as a reminder that success happens when inner and outer worlds align. If you’re blocked, focus on your emotional well-being and tending your psychic landscape until you’ve worked through what you’ve needed to (which, truly, is always an ongoing process). As you heal, notice how your external reality reflects that.

Trust your own vision for things. It might not be the conventional road to success, but your innovative spirit will lead you to great achievements and prosperity. Most people don’t have the vision or the bandwidth to see the world the way you do—make sure you don’t try to diminish yourself to fit into their worldview. Your experience and imagination will take you far.

The Bruja’s Guide to Tarot is the divination sister to the scholarly The Bruja Professor, a witchy take on literature, the occult & pop culture, and Enchantment Learning & Living, an inspirational blog celebrating life’s simple pleasures, everyday mysticism, and delectable recipes that are guaranteed to stir the kitchen witch in you.

If you enjoyed what you just read and believe that true magic is in the everyday…and good conversations with the tarot, subscribe to my newsletter below for regular doses of enchantment. Want even more inspiration? Follow me on Instagram and Facebook. Here’s to a magical life!

King of Swords

Element: Air

Imagery: A stern king holding a sword upright.

General Themes: Clarity, truth, authority, intellect.

The King of Swords Upright

The King of Swords, like the Queen of Swords, represents a clear-minded figure who can cut through the riffraff. He wants you to approach situations in a methodical and thoughtful way. Think things through and don’t rush ahead or get carried away by your emotions. Your power is in your mental clarity here.

Seriously—don’t get swept away by flights of fancy or high emotions. Trust your intellect here and stick to concrete facts. If you’re feeling stuck, use your sharp mind to imagine a better solution or a new path. Remember, you are the authority here and have the power to determine the outcome of any given situation.

These more cerebral cards can often seem like they are unfeeling. In truth, the King of Swords, like the Queen, is always empathetic, making ethical choices using sound reasoning for the greater good.

The King of Swords Reversed

Reversed, this card points to self-doubt and a fear that you aren’t smart enough to tackle whatever it is you are facing. Take a breath, clear your head, and trust what your intellect is telling you.

Know your own mind and don’t let others undermine your clarity. The best way to do this is to remove distractions and focus on the tangible—specific details, relevant information—to get your bearings.

Sometimes this card, like its queenly counterpart, appears when you are being overly critical, bending facts to suit your purposes, or otherwise distorting your reading of a situation. This often happens when a complex is triggered or self-doubt sets in hard, which then makes it difficult to think clearly or see the world as it is. Find the source of the mental angst and the solution will follow.

The Bruja’s Guide to Tarot is the divination sister to the scholarly The Bruja Professor, a witchy take on literature, the occult & pop culture, and Enchantment Learning & Living, an inspirational blog celebrating life’s simple pleasures, everyday mysticism, and delectable recipes that are guaranteed to stir the kitchen witch in you.

If you enjoyed what you just read and believe that true magic is in the everyday…and good conversations with the tarot, subscribe to my newsletter below for regular doses of enchantment. Want even more inspiration? Follow me on Instagram and Facebook. Here’s to a magical life!

King of Pentacles

Element: Earth

Imagery: A wealthy king surrounded by symbols of abundance.

General Themes: Stability, success, leadership, grounded power.

The King of Pentacles Upright

This card signifies that you are at the height of your power. You are abundance embodied and have enough life experience under your belt that you know what will produce nourishment and prosperity—and what you want to walk away from. At this point, cultivating an abundance mindset is as much tending your proverbial assets as it is knowing what not to give your energy to. This king exercises healthy discernment without apology.

When the King of Pentacles appears, it often signals that you no longer have to struggle to get by. That might feel strange, given how long it has taken you to get here. But the presence of the king, here, suggests that this sense of stability is lasting. You are thriving!

The King of Pentacles Reversed

The reversal of the King of Pentacles asks you to redefine what success means to you. We all want the traditional markers of success: a stable income, personal growth, healthy relationships, and all that comes with an abundant life. Still, sometimes we need to step back and consider what is truly fulfilling to us, especially if we are feeling swept up in comparing ourselves to others. We all have different ways of embodying prosperity—find yours and be true to it. This card sometimes appears when we have to celebrate the quieter successful moments—the healing insight, the consistent self-care practice, the choice to keep growing—even when they are not something we can easily explain to others. Those are important parts of living an abundant life too.

Like its upright form, the reversal wants you to enjoy your hard-earned abundance. Specifically, it wants you to squash any feelings of guilt or impostor syndrome here. You have nothing to apologize for—you earned every proverbial penny!

The King of Pentacles reversed can also show up when it is time to work less and invest in your personal life more. You might have been more career-focused or giving a lot of time and energy to a specific project. Take this reversal as permission to redirect your energy to other parts of your life that need tending. You don’t have to work so hard to prove yourself anymore.

The Bruja’s Guide to Tarot is the divination sister to the scholarly The Bruja Professor, a witchy take on literature, the occult & pop culture, and Enchantment Learning & Living, an inspirational blog celebrating life’s simple pleasures, everyday mysticism, and delectable recipes that are guaranteed to stir the kitchen witch in you.

If you enjoyed what you just read and believe that true magic is in the everyday…and good conversations with the tarot, subscribe to my newsletter below for regular doses of enchantment. Want even more inspiration? Follow me on Instagram and Facebook. Here’s to a magical life!

The Kings

The Kings represent the full maturation of the Knights and rule alongside the Queens as equals in their different realms. Where the Queens reign over the inner world, the Kings rule over the outer world. They represent maturity and authority, a strong leader who protects and supports those under his care. The Kings are the epitome of healthy masculinity (again, regardless of gender, as we all have masculine aspects to our nature).

Their dark side would include being overly authoritarian or, like the Swords, so logical that they ignore important wisdom of the imaginative or emotional realms, which is what makes the Queens a good balance force for them (and vice versa). 

In general, however, these court cards more often represent the quiet assurance of someone who had learned their life lessons the hard way: through experience, aging, and making mistakes. As a result, they have the impenetrable confidence of someone who doesn’t need to explain themselves or prove anything—an admirable quality, especially if imposter syndrome is something you struggle with.

The Kings are all about owning your power and learning to use it wisely.

The King of Pentacles

The King of Swords

The King of Wands

The King of Cups

Image Description: Starry background with the words, “The Bruja’s Guide to Tarot: The Kings: Leaders, Authority, Intellect, Outer World.”

The Bruja’s Guide to Tarot is the divination sister to the scholarly The Bruja Professor, a witchy take on literature, the occult & pop culture, and Enchantment Learning & Living, an inspirational blog celebrating life’s simple pleasures, everyday mysticism, and delectable recipes that are guaranteed to stir the kitchen witch in you.

If you enjoyed what you just read and believe that true magic is in the everyday…and good conversations with the tarot, subscribe to my newsletter below for regular doses of enchantment. Want even more inspiration? Follow me on Instagram and Facebook. Here’s to a magical life!