All Hail the King!

For today’s topic, we turn toward the leaves of a book dating from the early 14th century, the Tarot. For those of you familiar with the tarot, I’ll be discussion one of the court cards. For those of you unfamiliar with this book*, I’ll presenting a brief comparison of two different personality types. Not scary at all, right?
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The King of Wands

Let’s start with four pieces of background information first.

There are four suits in the traditional tarot deck. The King, as the tarot relates to our workaday world, is the President, CEO, boss, or supervisor of his related suit, or company if you will.

The suit of wands is associated with elemental Fire. The other elemental forces are Air, Water, and Earth.

There are four court cards; these are typically the King, Queen, Knight and Page.

Each of the court cards is associated with its own elemental force, regardless of its respective suit. This is important for our discussion today.

Alright, let's begin.

Before you, a King on his throne. His raiment and his throne reflect a rich splendor, and you can tell he’s worked hard to get where he is today. Indeed, this is a man who values work and action. He has engaged in many adventures on his way to the throne, and although he chooses to rule, he yearns for new challenges. Hopefully the wisdom he has attained over the years makes him better at dealing with challenges now than when he was younger. And I think this must be so. Someone who has not learned will only seek to avoid new learning experiences. The King of Wands, by contrast, yearns for new opportunities to apply his wisdom, and gain more. Although some references indicate that this King displays a manner of dissatisfaction as a result of impending change, I feel that he is unsatisfied because of stagnation. He wants adventure and opportunity! Consider a fire. It cannot burn the same piece of wood forever. The fuel is consumed and the fire burns out. New logs, new fuel must consistently be introduced for the fire to maintain itself.

Earth or Fire?

In the tarot, the King, regardless of suit, is associated with either the elemental force of Earth or Air. Now, if we consider the King’s energy to be the energy of Earth, then the King of Wands represents Earth of Fire, or the practical use of fire energy, the pragmatic will, and the practical steps necessary to exercise one’s will and attain one’s desires.

If we consider the King’s energy to be the energy of Air, then we have Air of Fire, the intellectual side of fire, with ideas of how one’s desires might be attained by engaging one’s will.

Either one of these approaches might be correct in a given situation, but each must be considered carefully.

The King as Earth is interesting for Wands, because as a businessman, this King of Wands acts on his desires, often relying on the ideas and input of others for guidance.

The King as Air is equally intriguing. This King of Wands comes up with his own ideas, or his own synthesis of other ideas. He then directs these ideas to the people best suited (pardon the pun) to execute his will and bring forth his desires.

One is a man of action, the other is a man of direction.
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Neither King is a solitary unit; neither man is an island. Each relies on those around him, and this is as it should be. After all, a King without subjects is just another man.

What's this got to do with me?

Where is all this leading to? It leads to you. If you take on the role of the King of Wands, are you King as Earth, or King as Air? You do indeed get to choose, and you must choose. Sometimes we must be forceful and act on our own accord, and sometimes we must stop and listen to the counsel of others. The role you choose, and when you choose it, is up to you.

May your choices be blessed.
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* The reference to the tarot as a book may be surprising to some. Rachael Pollock, celebrated tarot scholar, describes the tarot as a book whose story changes every time the cards are shuffled.

The Robyn Wood Tarot deck shows the King of Wands standing in a desert, representing the heat of fire. This is King as Air energy, because he is surrounded by nothing but air. In the Halloween Tarot, Kipling West is more obvious with her King as Air stance, as each King has a bat (the Halloween Tarot representatives of Air) somewhere on his garments or on his throne. In the book accompanying the Universal Tarot, the authors specify the King as Earth paradigm. The reader should note that either way, the King of Wands is associated with the will, desire, and creation, among other things.