By Sarah Taylor
Remember the Page of Swords in the left-hand position of last week’s reading? Today, it feels like there is the potential for the Page’s energy to evolve into that of the Knight of Swords — and there seems to be a clear point of choice surrounding that potential.
Last Sunday, I observed that the Page of Swords “is a youth who has not yet learned the courtly art of diplomacy. He and his sword come in with an uncensored quality. … He sweeps clean.”
The Page may embody the idea of no-holds-barred truth, but unlike the Knight, he is standing still: there is a sense of there literally being an earthy wisdom to this truth, his mind not yet developed enough in service of the ego to drown that wisdom out.
The Knight indicates the point where truth becomes a crusading ideal, often a battle. In the Knight, the truth has become charged with an airy unpredictability, reflected in the jaggedness that Pamela Colman Smith has given to the card. There is a mercurial quality to the mind that has a tendency to exist simply for its own sake. What is the Knight fighting for?
So, the Knight heads off determinedly, in a warlike world of his own making. What does he ride away from? Two very different cards from the Knight, which in turn complement each other.