By Sarah Taylor
A succinct message in the three cards drawn this week, with the Knight of Swords (the King in Rider-Waite Smith-based decks) as initiator, transforming and clarifying what is lying in front of him. In fact, this reading is going to be much like the Knight of Swords when he acts: swift, and to the point.
The Knight of Swords in his golden aspect is a Solomon-like figure. His wisdom is deep, his insight acute. Some of the words on the card that that describe him are “passion,” “flexible thinking,” “ambition,” “straightness,”
What the Knight wants, the Knight goes for. His focus is the way that he envisions his desired outcome — and here we are witnessing the active shaping of that outcome. Swords are associated with thoughts; more broadly, anything to do with the mind. The Knight is the template of the fully individuated, masculine aspect of mind — one that is action-orientated, that wields the Ace with the movements of an adept, that cuts through the bullshit to the heart of the matter.
The light emanating from the Knight’s eyes is the light of consciousness. It is his consciousness that is directed: he doesn’t look with his physical eyes; he has an inner sight that transcends the physical. He is Neo at the moment where he sees The Matrix, in the film of the same name by directors Andy and Lana Wachowski.
What he is seeing through is something that has been blocking a significant source of creativity. Wands are Eros, energy. In this particular deck, the Nine of Wands depicts the shattering of walls that can no longer contain the light inside them. They are shattered by the light — the same light from the Knight of Swords. The light, then, is insight and Eros combined, which is a formidable combination of masculine directedness. Air, and fire. Lightning.
The irony is that what this combination is here to transform is too much masculinity — the masculine acts to rebalance itself through a combination of deep understanding of a situation and the wherewithal to act accordingly.
What is liberated is what we find in the final card: between two men, a woman. Disks are the second of the feminine suits in the tarot (Cups being the first), and they embody physical reality. Born into the manifest, tangible world, we are witnessing the introduction of a complementary energy, one that is feminine. All of them together shine with the coalesced light that we first saw unleashed in the first card; they are a team: one of the words on the card is “association.” Some others:
“Gain of love,” “wisdom and creativity,” “The more I give the more I get.”
Without the feminine, the masculine ceases to exist fully. Without the masculine, the feminine cannot come into her own. Both need to work together in order to bring their work forward. Here, it is the role of the masculine to free his counterpart, and in so doing, he frees himself.
Astrology/Elemental correspondences: Knight of Swords (the fiery aspect of air), Nine of Wands (Moon in Sagittarius), Nine of Disks (Venus in Virgo)
If you want to experiment with tarot cards and don’t have any, we provide a free tarot spread generator using the Celtic Wings spread, which is based on the traditional Celtic Cross spread. This article explains how to use the spread.
Thank you so much for your kind words, cowboyiam.
One of the things I’m really passionate about is teaching people that we all have our own, inner tarot reader. Based on this, I have a suggestion if it feels right to you: to see if you can work out what the Weekend Tarot Reading has for you just by looking at the cards first, then seeing if your thoughts tally with my writing after you’ve had a clear image of the story they’re telling — much like Amanda related in her fabulous comment below!
If that feels like something you’re drawn to doing, you’re very welcome to contact me via my website and let me know your progress.
~ Sarah
Sarah I have been following your weeklies for a long while and I am always amazed how much comfort it gives me for where i am. This week it compels me to stretch myself farther and go after what I already know I want. Whatever conflicts arise after I put myself all out there I am confident your future readings will give me the answers I need to push through. I appreciate your readings and thank you for contributing. You are a blessing to me.
Such a vivid, unmistakeable interplay of cards, isn’t it, Amanda? And your way with words has had me guffawing here, with not a little gratitude! PEW! PEWWWW! PEWWWWW!
for real: every time i look at this spread i crack myself up with the urge to make “laser gun” sounds like in the movies!
🙂
i have to say that the moment i saw the spread (i looked at the larger version before reading the post), i had to laugh. i thought, “oh wow — dude’s shooting LASER BEAMS of pure thought from his eyes, which busts up the solid obstacle/thing from the past all Superman-like, and then the pieces coalesce and form this new solar-system of groovy marbles ushering us into the future in a sexy threesome. cool!”
😉
and i’m only partly joking — that really was what came to mind! makes me wish *every* reading could be about harnessing our Superman laser-eyes to bust up what’s in the way and make room for happy-sexy-future-present.
oh wait… maybe they are…!
Thank you, PWOutsider! 🙂
Thanks for yet another great reading, Sarah.