Meaning
Richmond's Kings are mature men of their suit, and the King of Diamonds is the active one: “A sharp, quick, active […] man”, “proud, self-made”. The words his entry adds are about gain and are left out; the figure belongs to the reading, not to the sex of anyone born on the card's days.
We read the card as judgement, enterprise and a firm hand. The tradition sees its people as having sound judgement and the confidence to act on it, enterprising and fond of running things their own way; it names their lesson as letting fairness and generosity guide that strength, so that what they build serves others too.
In the spreads
The King of Diamonds is the second card of the Mars row, under the Venus column, directly after the King of Hearts, which is its Moon card. Its path runs through the Six of Hearts and the Four of Clubs, and its Result card is the Ten of Diamonds at the centre of the spread.
It gives to the Three of Clubs and receives from the Seven of Spades. Its seven birthdays, from 14 January to 2 July, have no cusp and fall under Capricorn to Cancer; a 2 July birth, under Cancer, takes its Moon card, the King of Hearts, as ruling card.
Life path and karma cards
Read from the Life Spread: the card before the King of Diamonds, then the ten after it, the order running on from the crown line back to the top right. The names of the places are Camp's, used descriptively.
| Place on the path | Card |
|---|---|
| Moon (the card before it) | King of Hearts |
| Mercury | Six of Hearts |
| Venus | Four of Clubs |
| Mars | Two of Diamonds |
| Jupiter | Jack of Spades |
| Saturn | Eight of Clubs |
| Uranus | Six of Diamonds |
| Neptune | Four of Spades |
| Pluto | Ten of Hearts |
| Result | Ten of Diamonds |
| Cosmic Lesson | Eight of Spades |
| Karma card it gives to | Three of Clubs |
| Karma card that gives to it | Seven of Spades |
Birthdays and ruling cards
The ruling card is the card of the life path in the place of the Sun sign's ruling planet; Leo takes the birth card itself and Scorpio two cards.
| Birthday | Sun sign and its ruler | Ruling card |
|---|---|---|
| 14 January | Capricorn (Saturn) | Eight of Clubs |
| 12 February | Aquarius (Uranus) | Six of Diamonds |
| 10 March | Pisces (Neptune) | Four of Spades |
| 8 April | Aries (Mars) | Two of Diamonds |
| 6 May | Taurus (Venus) | Four of Clubs |
| 4 June | Gemini (Mercury) | Six of Hearts |
| 2 July | Cancer (the Moon) | King of Hearts |
For every sign, as the tradition's modern rulers give them: Aries (Mars): Two of Diamonds; Taurus (Venus): Four of Clubs; Gemini (Mercury): Six of Hearts; Cancer (the Moon): King of Hearts; Leo (the Sun): King of Diamonds; Virgo (Mercury): Six of Hearts; Libra (Venus): Four of Clubs; Scorpio (Mars and Pluto): Two of Diamonds and Ten of Hearts; Sagittarius (Jupiter): Jack of Spades; Capricorn (Saturn): Eight of Clubs; Aquarius (Uranus): Six of Diamonds; Pisces (Neptune): Four of Spades.
Correspondences
Each item with how it stands: “sourced” is in the work cited, “our construction” is EsoTerrier’s own, and “disputed” means the sources disagree.
- Suit in Richmond (1893, p. 28)
- The emblem of autumn, the third season, and of the third period of life; his reading of the suit is about gain, which we do not quote sourced
- The suit's season and planets in Richmond (pp. 27 to 28, 41)
- Autumn; Jupiter and Neptune, each with a reading of gain we do not quote. Facts about his book, not about anyone born under the card sourced
- Number in Richmond (pp. 42 to 45)
- Kings: a mature man of the suit, a figure in a reading and not the sex of anyone born under the card sourced
- Richmond's table for the card (p. 152)
- “A sharp, quick, active […] man” and a “proud, self-made man”, quoted with its words on gain left out sourced
- Our keyword line (2026)
- Judgement, enterprise and a firm hand. our construction
- Our theme for the suit
- Values, Possessions, Worth our construction
- A suit element or a single planet
- None in Richmond or any founding text; the sets other sites give disagree, and ours was dropped in October 2026 disputed
How the schools read it
- Olney H. Richmond (1893)
- An emblem of solar value 39 and spirit value 34, read through its suit, the harvest gathered in, and its number, a mature man of the suit: one meaning under each of the seven planets, most of them events (p. 152).
- Randall and Campbell, Lein, Camp (1947 onward)
- Read the birth card as character rather than events. Camp's line adds the life path, the karma cards and the yearly spreads used on this page, and gives the card a nickname, which we do not use.
- EsoTerrier
- Read here as judgement and a firm hand, guided by fairness so that what is built serves others too.
Claims about it
-
Each suit has an element and a ruling planet.
disputedWhat the record shows: No founding text gives the suits elements, and the sources that do disagree with each other. Richmond gives each suit a season and two planets (pp. 27 to 28, 41), which we report as his. We dropped the attributes in October 2026.
-
Each card has a traditional nickname.
disputedWhat the record shows: The nicknames are Camp's coinages, or Randall and Campbell's, not Richmond's; taken as a set they mark a text as derived from his. We use none of them.
Elsewhere on EsoTerrier
- Three of Clubs its first karma card, the card it gives to
- Seven of Spades its second karma card, the card that gives to it
- King of Hearts its Moon card, the card before it in the Life Spread
- Six of Hearts its Mercury card, the card after it in the Life Spread
- Natal Chart where the Sun sign that picks the ruling card is worked out
