Knight of Swords
charging in · bluntness · speed · an argument won
Card art: Pamela Colman Smith, 1909, for A. E. Waite. Public domain.
The suit of Swords
In a few words
- charging in
- bluntness
- speed
- an argument won
A knight charging headlong into the wind. Speed, courage, blunt truth, and not much listening.
Upright
- Everything
- A knight charging headlong into the wind. Speed, courage, blunt truth, and not much listening.
- Love
- Direct pursuit, bold words. Exciting, if the other person likes the wind.
- Work
- Act fast, say it straight, win the argument. Just make sure you are right.
- Money
- A quick, decisive money move. Check the brakes work first.
- Myself
- Conviction. Use it to defend something, not to run someone down.
Skill, bravery, capacity, defence, address, enmity, wrath, war, destruction, opposition, resistance, ruin. There is therefore a sense in which the card signifies death, but it carries this meaning only in its proximity to other cards of fatality.The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1911), p. 230
Reversed
- Everything
- Recklessness, cruelty with words, rushing into a fight not worth having.
- Love
- Aggression, or impatience that bruises. Slow the horse.
- Work
- Bulldozing colleagues. Or losing your nerve at the moment to charge.
- Money
- A rash decision made in a temper. Undo what you can.
- Myself
- Anger driving. Get off the horse and walk a while.
Imprudence, incapacity, extravagance.The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1911), p. 230
The card, as Waite described it
He is riding in full course, as if scattering his enemies. In the design he is really a prototypical hero of romantic chivalry. He might almost be Galahad, whose sword is swift and sure because he is clean of heart.The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1911), p. 230
The plain-word meanings on this page were written for ShreeJyoti and are still under review.