The physical and emotional nature to which this card is attributed is dark, ardent, lithe, animated, impassioned, noble. The King uplifts a flowering wand, and wears, like his three correspondences in the remaining suits, what is called a cap of maintenance beneath his crown. He connects with the symbol of the lion, which is emblazoned on the back of his throne.
the plate, in waite's words · the painted card will hang here in time
In divination
Dark man, friendly, countryman, generally married, honest and conscientious. The card always signifies honesty, and may mean news concerning an unexpected heritage to fall in before very long.
Reversed:Good, but severe; austere, yet tolerant.
The library's note
The King lifts a flowering wand and wears, like his counterparts in the other three suits, "a cap of maintenance beneath his crown," a lion emblazoned on the throne behind him. Waite calls his temperament "dark, ardent, lithe, animated, impassioned, noble," the suit's vitality carried here as settled authority rather than the Knight's headlong motion or the Page's untested news. He names honesty as this card's one constant meaning across every reading he compiled, the suit's animation matured, by the last court rank, into simple reliability.
a young page · the keeper's voice pass on the note is still to come