Card of the Day, Day 2

Today's card of the day is the Knight of Swords.

The Knight of Swords rules from the 21st degree of Taurus to the 20th degree of Gemini.  Lon Milo Duquette estimates this to be roughly from May 11th to June 10th. He is the fiery part of air, and rests at the Qabalistic point, Chokmah.

The Knight of Swords is a very active, aggressive character. He conveys the image of charging or attack in his actions and attitude. He moves quickly, and can be skilled in the pursuit of whatever has grabbed his attention, but the Knight of Swords is primarily air, which is mental and conscious. That means the movement implied is intellectual in some way, rather than emotional or practical. That he's fueled by fire adds to the urgency of his actions.

The combination of the mental quality of air and the energetic quality of fire make him good at initiating activities that interest him, but bring with it a lack of determination and focus. He can plunge full throttle but lack any clear decisiveness, or even, in the eyes of others, any intention. He is the aggressiveness of the mind unleashed and then distracted, deterred or discouraged, which make all of his efforts futile.

Writing this, it dawns on me that among the court cards in the sword suit, the male court cards are sharp-minded but ungrounded, while the female ones are much more a force to be reckoned with. I suspect that's due at least in part to the included element. The Knight of Swords, as I mentioned, is fiery air while the Prince of Swords is the airy part of air. By contrast, the Queen of Swords is the watery part of air and the Princess of Swords is the earthy part of air. It's almost as if the intellect needs to either become tempered with emotion or practicality to reach the fullest expression of its potential.

That said, while many do believe that the court cards represent the gender of the person they refer to, I find them to be more indicative of someone's astrological placement, either their Sun or their ascendant. In that sense, while technically male, the Knight of Swords could refer to either a man or a woman but expresses qualities we, as a society, tend to consider masculine.