King of Swords
Upright
Whatsoever arises out of the idea of judgment and all its connexions—power, command, authority, militant intelligence, law, offices of the crown, and so forth.
Reversed
Cruelty, perversity, barbarity, perfidy, evil intention.
A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1911), Part III §2The picture
He sits in judgment, holding the unsheathed sign of his suit. He recalls, of course, the conventional Symbol of Justice in the Trumps Major, and he may represent this virtue, but he is rather the power of life and death, in virtue of his office.
Older readings
A lawyer, senator, doctor. Reversed: A bad man; also a caution to put an end to a ruinous lawsuit.
A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1911), Part III §4. Waite collected these and says they often disagree with the main meanings.Waite wrote in 1911 and some of his meanings show it. Tarot is a tradition of reflection, not a prediction, and no card decides anything for you.