{"id":30595,"date":"2010-11-07T14:30:54","date_gmt":"2010-11-07T19:30:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/?p=30595"},"modified":"2010-11-07T17:26:49","modified_gmt":"2010-11-07T22:26:49","slug":"the-weekend-tarot-reading-the-knight-of-pentacles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/reading-tarot\/the-weekend-tarot-reading-the-knight-of-pentacles\/","title":{"rendered":"The Weekend Tarot Reading: The Knight of Pentacles"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editor’s Note: If you want to experiment with tarot cards and don’t have any, we provide a free tarot spread generator<\/a> using the Celtic Wings spread, which is based on the traditional Celtic Cross spread. This article<\/a> tells you how to use the spread<\/em>. You can visit Sarah’s website here<\/a>. –efc<\/em><\/p>\n

By Sarah Taylor<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Knight of Pentacles, jaw set and resolute, looks to a place beyond the right-hand edge of the card. His horse is at rest, its ears turned backwards, waiting for a command from its master. In the Knight’s gloved right hand sits a pentacle. Is the Knight extending it to someone? Or is he simply holding it up for examination? I can’t quite decide whether the movement of his hand is enough to suggest an offering; or… something else.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Knight of Pentacles from the Rider-Waite Smith Tarot deck. The Knight is the second of four court cards, appearing after the Page and before the Queen and King.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Knight’s expression is purposeful and serious, and while his arm is held forward, the rest of his body is tilted slightly backwards, away from the point on which he is focusing. Do you feel a tension between the extension of the arm, and the way he is set back in the saddle? What is it suggesting to us? This, perhaps:<\/p>\n

Whereas the Page in the previous card of the suit is a romantic soul, his pentacle the all-consuming object of his desire (he holds it aloft, and it seems that nothing can draw his attention away from it), the Knight is learning that the desire of the lover can get you into all kinds of trouble. He is a warrior. He has almost certainly waged war over his pentacle — the conquest of ‘things’ and the need for power that have justified so many of our human battles. Sometimes a warrior such as he comes to a point where it is worth asking a few questions:<\/p>\n

What does power over something mean? What rights can he claim over something that was ultimately divinely given (in the Ace)? What is the responsibility of the possessor?<\/p>\n

Perhaps the Knight is beginning to understand the notion of acting in service to something greater than he is. From the need to possess of the new lover (the Page), the Knight has reached the point of detachment. He doesn’t seem to be entirely comfortable with the notion yet — I get the impression there is an air of “What? I’ve fought this hard to find out that it wasn’t really mine to begin with!” about him. But there is a sense of a transition into that understanding.<\/p>\n

The Knight is richly clothed, as is his horse. A red cloak almost covers the armour on his upper body. That cloak is seen again — this time without armour — on the Queen in the next card. Red is the colour of blood, of life; and of authority. The Knight is donning the mantle of authority. But it is an authority that puts the need to fight in its proper place: battle as a necessity, not a hot-headed pursuit into the ‘rights of ownership’. The King wears armour, but it is almost wholly covered by a gown that is covered in grapes. He will fight if he needs to… but only if he needs to. He is a protector, not an aggressor. The Knight is showing signs of that shift in power and attitude.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The fruit, flowers and leaves that adorn and surround the King are beginning to issue from the Knight’s helmet — transforming a war-like object into one that is tempered by a different facet of humanity: the desire to nurture. Similarly, there is a sprig in the browband of his mount’s bridle. Horses were ridden into battle; but they were also used in more peaceful pursuits, such as farming. This is suggested by the ploughed fields that run across the bottom of the picture.<\/p>\n

So the Knight has come to a resting point. Animation is suspended. The fighting is over, and the visor on his helmet is up. He can see clearly ahead of him. The pentacle is no longer completely his. In one gesture, he is relinquishing complete possession.<\/p>\n

The Knight of Pentacles speaks of those moments in our lives when we realise that we are custodians rather than owners of the world that surrounds us; and that it is by working in harmony with it that we reap the greatest rewards. It is not a moral standpoint, but one that simply takes into account the efficiency of operating and working with, and within, the laws of nature. All things will be brought into balance — an idea first espoused in the Two of Pentacles. That balance has its fullest expression in the Queen and King of Pentacles, who demonstrate what it is to be truly wealthy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editor’s Note: 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 tells you how to use the spread. You can visit Sarah’s website here. –efc By Sarah Taylor The … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":470,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":""},"categories":[183],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30595"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/470"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30595\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}