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.
Unlike the Knight, the figure in the Three of Wands is standing still, gathered, calm, his back to us, looking out over a fiery bay. He holds one wand — perhaps symbolic of the Ace, the ultimate ‘magic wand’ — the other two wands standing at his back. This card is reminiscent of the Two of Wands. In the Two, though, the man was shaping his world into existence. Here, in the Three, he is in the world and the next task awaits him: that of prospecting. Now that he has his world, how is he going to choose to expand it?
The Three of Wands implies an element of risk. Each wand is visually associated with a ship sailing away from the figure and out, it seems, into the ocean. But it is a calculated risk: he is well-dressed, he has a circlet of gold on his head, he is standing squarely. He has made all the preparations that he can; now he has to surrender what is valuable to him to another force and wait to see what returns.
Looked at in this way, he is a foil to the ruler in the Four of Pentacles in last week’s reading, who held what he had so close that he could no longer move.
And, finally, we have another major arcana card in the third card position — this time, The World. I look at the Knight of Swords and The World and I see something clear: a movement ‘away from’, by a fighter riding ragged in one direction and a woman who is dancing in the other.
In The World, the figure looks over her shoulder. She is aware of where she has come from. She is naked — unarmoured; she dances a celebration. She is surrounded by all four elements of the fixed astrological signs: Aquarius (air), Taurus (earth), Leo (fire), and Scorpio (water). There is a beautiful balance to this card, and that is mirrored in the card’s interpretation: The World is the coming to fruition of a particular theme or phase, and the opening of another doorway into the next soul adventure.
As the man stands on the cliff-top, waving good-bye to his precious cargo, so he is also inviting something new to come into his realm of experience. Threes are the stabilising of something in duality — far less wobbly on their feet than the Twos, which are just getting used to operating in a world that is defined by opposites. By combining preparation and faith (in his own abilities), and releasing what he knew he had to release in order to receive something else, he has paved the way for something altogether new to dance into existence — something that also looks back in acknowledgement of his work. A moment of communication between our world and the world of the gods, before the door is opened fully and the threshold crossed, heralding a new beginning.
Astrology/Elemental correspondences: Knight of Swords (the airy aspect of air), Three of Wands (Sun in Aries), The World (Saturn)
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.
Just beautiful, Sarah! What an inspiring way to see off this year and greet the new one.
This is such a beautiful and profound reading Sarah. I am very moved, thank you.
The three of Wands is a card I always seemed to carry with me from when I was first introduced to tarot on a trip to Paris some 18 years ago, and then again not until finding PW and your column here last year. Although, as with that first reading, this was a card’s imagery over the years that somehow remained impressed in me.
When I look at the Three of Wands today and then read your interpretation, the symbolism it further reached inside me. We see the three ships set off to sea. But today I realized, “Why are they not traveling in blue water?”. Most of the card is covered in a hot, bright yellow. The desert is what I feel, or if it is water, it must be bathed in such a bright Star light, the Solstice maybe?
I guess with the timing of Christmas your description and in sequence to The World Card, with the Three of Wands acting as the centerpiece in such perseverance and faith, it becomes for me a story that has shifted into higher octave. I now see Three Kings, bearing gifts set off and released by God who lovingly, protectively, yet proudly stands over surveying his work as it unfolds quite effortlessly.
As with the three ships, the Kings do not know where they are going, nor what they will find along the way, and least of all, the miraculous ‘living’ gift to be received by The World when they get there. They just know to accept, be lead, and to follow their hearts in belief.
This reading for me is a divinely beautiful Christmas message. Thank you again Sarah for this:
“..he has paved the way for something altogether new to dance into existence — something that also looks back in acknowledgement of his work. A moment of communication between our world and the world of the gods, before the door is opened fully and the threshold crossed, heralding a new beginning.”
Happy Solstice blessings to all.
Poetry in motion, Sarah! Consummate and powerful.. I greet this message with an “Amen!” 🙂