The New Year and the Knights: Getting Back on the Horse

The Knights in the Smith-Waite Tarot Deck: Centennial Edition; US Games Systems

Returning to something after a long break, hiatus, or sabbatical intimidates most of us. Whether it’s getting back to work after being out with an illness, taking up a hobby after many years or even the prospect of returning to “real life” after a vacation, getting back into action can fill us with dread. I’ve written on the blog before how much I love the New Year and the clean slate it brings. As we’ve stepped into this New Year and I’ve wanted to get back to activities I’d left on the back burner, like writing this blog, the Knights of the tarot popped into my mind. It must have been the “getting back in the saddle,” or “get back on the horse” sentiment that prompted me and I’m glad it did because the metaphor is perfect for picking back up wherever we may have left off.

The Knights of the tarot might be the true underdogs of tarot. Part of the court cards of the deck which many people already have a hard time interpreting and relating to, the knights occupy an energy that is under-represented in tarot. The Pages represent novices and new beginnings. The Queen and King represent the feminine and masculine principles of mastery and authority. However, when people pull a Knight card they often stare blankly and understanding comes to halt.

The Knights represent the continuation of something already set in motion: an idea or thought, feelings of love, creative endeavors, or building something. The Knights upon their steeds carry out orders given by the Queen or King or they complete with skill what the apprentice Pages cannot. In short, whether swiftly or slowly, Knights get things done.

As I contemplated the New Year and my goals, I realized that so many of our goals and resolutions for the New Year aren’t really new, but are our attempts to get back to things we’d abandoned or forgotten. We aspire to get back in shape, finish learning that second language or take our proficiency to the next level, or complete household projects left in states of flux. Oftentimes finally finishing something is even more rewarding than taking up a new project.

As you proceed into 2023, this is a wonderful time to reconnect with forgotten projects and goals. It is never too late and connecting with the energy of the Knights may help you focus with purpose and determination. Let these energies bring you clarity and understanding. The Knights of the tarot are not at all hard to relate to once you understand their meaning. They are warriors who get things done in their own unique ways.

The Knight of Swords and the Knight of Wands from the Smith-Waite Tarot Deck: Centennial Edition; US Games Systems

I like to the group the Knights in pairs. First, we’ll look at what I call the Speedy Knights: the Knight of Swords and the Knight of Wands. Sometimes these two remind me of the phrase, “Fools rush in.” They both are typically depicted in the RWS (Rider-Waite-Smith) tradition as riding full-gallop on their chargers towards wherever they’ve been directed or commanded to go, wand and sword raised in offensive positions. The Knight of Swords embodies thought, ideas, and beliefs in action. The Knight of Wands embodies creativity, passion, and even spirituality in action. Both knights waste no time getting to their destinations. Fools may rush in but sometimes they are right on time!

The Knight of Cups and the Knight of Pentacles in the Smith-Waite Tarot Deck: Centennial Edition; US Games Systems

Next let’s look at the Steady Knights: the Knight of Cups and the Knight of Pentacles or Coins. These are the “Slow and steady wins the race,” knights. They both sit atop their steeds in a calm if not completely still manner in the RWS. The Knights present forth their cup or pentacle, almost as offerings rather than as weapons to attack like the wand and sword. The Knight of Cups represents emotion, compassion and romance or love in action. Love really cannot be rushed. The Knight of Pentacles represents finances, work, and progress in the physical world. Traveling or attaining physical resources is never a quick thing in the eyes of Spirit: these things take time.

Invoking the energies of the Knights in tarot can really help us focus on our goals and actually work towards them successfully. The qualities that the Knights characterize cover all facets of life and we can relate them to any task. I’ve listed a breakdown below that should be helpful when determining which Knight would be most helpful for you to work with based on what you plan to achieve. Using the energy of the tarot Knights can help you have the most accomplished and successful year yet while learning about and becoming much more comfortable with these court cards. Give them a try!

The Knight of Swords in The Lightseer’s Tarot by Chris-Anne; Hay House

Knight of Swords: Connect with this knight in relation to all things thought-based. Ideas, brainstorming, written and verbal communication. Finally writing that book or taking up journaling again. Learning to be a better public speaker or learning a new language. Starting a book club or a weekly reading routine. Go finish school or go back to acquire an advanced degree.

The Knight of Wands in The Lightseer’s Tarot by Chris-Anne; Hay House

Knight of Wands: Connect with this knight in relation to all creative and spiritual endeavors. Start or finally finish craft projects or art pieces. Work on inventions and innovations you’ve never gotten on paper. Learn to play a musical instrument, start dancing again, get back to doing improv. Finish sewing projects or do cosplay. Start meditating again or studying a religion that’s always interested you. Devote more time to metaphysical studies such as tarot, astrology, and witchcraft.

The Knight of Cups in the Lightseer’s Tarot by Chris-Anne; Hay House

Knight of Cups: Connect with this knight regarding matters of the heart, emotions, and psyche. Go back to therapy. Do shadow work, self-reflection or any kind of self-help that interests you. Be more demonstrative and openly affectionate with loved ones, express your feelings to your loved ones or establish better boundaries in your relationships. Pursue romantic love and start dating or plan to be more romantic within your current relationship. Cultivate more compassion for those you judge.

The Knight of Pentacles in the Lightseer’s Tarot by Chris-Anne; Hay House

Knight of Pentacles: Connect with this knight regarding your work or professional life, finances, and all physical matters. Acquire professional certifications that increase your value as an employee. Prepare yourself for promotion or start your own business. Start budgeting and becoming more financially savvy. Learn about investing or real estate. Make plans to finally travel to your dream destination. Strengthen your physical fitness by exercising, play sports. Conduct home improvements or work in your garden.

Stop, Start, Continue

Photo Credit: Brett Jordan; @brett_jordan

Tarot is an amazing tool for spiritual exploration and esoteric study. What is also wonderful about the tarot is how it can guide us through everyday life, no matter how mundane the situation in question. I firmly believe there is no situation in life for which tarot cannot provide guidance. In this blog post I’d like to share with you one of my favorite tarot exercises or spreads I created to help with any situation that has you in a bind.

Certain situations in life are beyond our control, or they certainly feel that way. Our reaction, of course is what we can control. And even that feels impossible at times! We panic, our emotions get the best of us, or we freeze with indecision. Feeling empowered to make decisions is so important, but it’s also intimidating and overwhelming at times.

I came up with a simple tarot spread for guidance one day and found it worked so well, I’ve used it ever since. Many tarot spreads answer questions like, “What do I need to know about situation (fill in the blank).” Answering a question like this can be helpful when you have no clue what is going on. However, when you do have some information, a question like this can render an answer that feels too vague. Common spreads will also cover the past, present, and future of the situation. You think, “I don’t need to know about the situation, I need to know what to do about the situation!”

This is where a spread I call “Stop, Start, Continue” comes in. Knowing that some kind of action must be taken but needing guidance and clarity, I pull three cards, asking, “What do I need to stop doing. What should I start doing? And what am I already doing that I should continue doing?”

Cards from The Spirit Keeper’s Tarot by Benebell Wen; self-published; https://www.benebellwen.com

As an example, I asked the cards, “When it comes to growing my client base, what should I stop doing, what should I start doing, and what should I continue doing?” Using the Spirit Keeper’s Tarot, Vitruvian Edition, by Benebell Wen, the cards I pulled were the 8 of Swords, the Herald of Awakening (the Page of Wands), and the 6 of Orbs (Coins).

The adjustments I need to make are immediately apparent to me! I need to get out of my own head and stop trapping myself by over thinking. I need to start expressing my creativity and communicating spiritual messages with more confidence. Lastly, I need to continue providing content and offering my spiritual services to any would-be clients. I need to take action and continue to be of service. This is much clearer than if I’d just asked, “What do I need to know about growing my client base.”

Cards from Mystic Mondays Tarot by Grace Duong; Chronicle Books

Let’s look at another example. It’s a controversial one! I asked, “How best can America handle the upcoming election?” Using the Mystic Mondays Tarot by Grace Duong, I pulled the 5 of Cups, the Queen of Swords, and the Ace of Swords! Alrighty then! What Americans need to stop doing is focusing on the disappointment we feel at how things are going in the political landscape and in 2020 in general. We’re seeing the glass as half empty, not half full. Then, we need to start communicating our thoughts and ideas with respect and clarity. We need to say what we think with measure and grace. The Queen of Swords doesn’t shout – she doesn’t need to. Then, we need to continue speaking our minds and communicating with each other. Keep having those difficult conversations, don’t shut down.

Hopefully you can see this tarot exercise is great for when you need clear direction and actionable guidance. Try it out for yourself and let me know what you think!

Staying Out Of It

Photo Credit: Ming Jun Tan @mingjuntan

In this week’s energy forecast uploaded on my YouTube channel I received a message from Spirit that is still on my mind. This message was “don’t take the bait,” and “stay out of it.” I think this message still echoes for me because we seem to live in a world where internet blood feuds, Twitter wars, and arguments about sensitive and controversial topics are discussed more openly than ever.

As someone more spiritually attuned – crown chakra oriented if you will, I observe these demonstrations of strife and discord around politics and popular culture with a detached curiosity. I’m not claiming to be above humanity, by the way. My interests just lie in other arenas. Anyone who wants to debate the purpose and influence of the Hierophant in tarot, prepare to battle! I’ll create a Twitter account just to beef with you!

That’s just a joke, but elements of it ring true across the collective. Whatever your interests: politics, art, pop culture, education, etc., we seem to live in a world of people ready to argue, ready to do verbal battle. Wanting to control the narrative. Wanting to be RIGHT. So much talking and not a lot of listening.

Ok, kids, settle down . . . Universal Waite Tarot, U.S. Games Systems, INC.

This barely scratches the surface of dealing with arguments among family, friends, and colleagues directly in our daily lives. How do we navigate landscapes full of opinion landmines without getting caught in the explosions? Particularly when we have people in our lives who thrive on that type of engagement? We may even be that quarrelsome person sometimes, depending on the topic or trigger.

Sometimes we just need to “stay out of it,” and not take any bait laid before us. It’s not about silencing ourselves or denying our truth. It’s more about choosing our sanity over being right. Letting others get their blood pressure up, if that’s how they chose to expend their energy. Again, I have to emphasize that this isn’t to cultivate a sense of superiority to others, it is to cultivate a sense of peace within ourselves when and where we can. We won’t always be able to stay out of arguments and debates, nor will we always want to.

Along with focusing on peace, staying out of petty quarrels can also help us to improve our listening abilities. So many of us listen mainly to respond rather than understand. I am guilty of this and I hope to continue improving on this as I age. It helps to observe and listen to conversations and debates with non-attachment and truly discern the underlying issues and themes.

You can be right, or you can be happy. You can win, but at what cost? Universal Waite Tarot, U.S. Games Systems, INC.

People often caught in more toxic communication cycles are expressing their fears and concerns. They feel marginalized and not heard. They are afraid of how rapidly the world is changing and they feel the foundations they built their lives on slipping. Paradigms are built to be not necessarily torn down, but at least shifted. Nothing stays the same. No one is “right,” however we may try to be or believe ourselves to be. Even my opinion that no one is right is debatable. I might be wrong. And that’s OK.

Consider sitting the next few debates out. Not to detach and ignore, but to observe and look for underlying patterns and meaning. Listen to understand and when you next speak you may add more value to the conversation than you would have been able to otherwise.

Cards of Doom!

The Snake card from the Mystical Lenormand, US Games Systems

There’s a funny thing about divining with cards. Considering other forms of divination such as reading tea leaves, runes, or cowrie shells, there’s something about the blatantly and powerfully visual aspect of reading cards. I mean, there are literally pictures on the cards telling us stories and evoking so many emotions.

So what do we do when we pull cards that have pictures that frighten us or make us nervous? And what if what we think these cards are supposed to portend doesn’t actually come to pass? Perhaps the cards have a different meaning for you as a reader, or a different meaning in particular for your client. Allow me to explain.

Lately, in an attempt to learn more about the Lenormand card divination system, I’ve been pulling one to three cards each morning in order to peek into what I can expect from the day and of course, learn and study the cards that come up. The first time I saw the Snake or Serpent card come up for me I got nervous. I thought, oh, geez, here we go. I might have to be on the lookout for a false friend or someone who might lie to me. Setbacks, potential treachery, etc. After all, these are some of the traditional meanings of this card and it is definitely one of the red flag cards in the deck. That first day, no treachery or lies occurred. I actually had a really nice day. However, the card came up again the next day. And again a few days later. I even pulled it again today. Hmmm . . .

Upon meditating on the card further, I came up with a hunch that for me personally, the Snake card might mean something not in any of the usual guide books. The Snake can be a dangerous creature, with an evil tongue. But it can also represent spirituality and Kundalini awakening. Kundalini is divine life force energy often depicted as a coiled serpent at the base of the spine. I noticed at the end of the first day that I pulled this card that I’d felt a very close communion with Spirit that day. It also dawned on me a few days later when I pulled the same card again that I’ve always considered the serpent to be a totem animal of mine. I’d honestly not thought about it in so long. I believe pulling this card was a reminder to start reconnecting and working with the transformative nature of the serpent. This is not a bad message at all.

The Tower card from the Smith-Waite Tarot Centennial Edition, US Games Systems

Another card that makes readers and clients take caution is the Tower card in tarot. Lightning strikes a tower, setting it on fire. As it crumbles, people are helplessly tossed out of the windows, perhaps to their death. Whoa! Not a fun image at all! Terrible, in fact. The Tower speaks to foundations – old habits and beliefs being torn down and made anew, in a different image. Yet I have often found as a reader that the Tower can just as often mean the person I’m reading for is going back to, or needs to go back to school. Huh?

Well, the Tower can literally refer to institutions and organizations. Institutions of higher learning are no exception. I noticed this pattern years ago when this card come up whenever a querent considered continuing their studies or was weighing whether or not to return to school. My intuition was right and since then I’ve seen this card come up time and again regarding formal education. Certainly not every time, but more than often enough to consider it as viable an option as upheaval.

Ultimately for you, some cards will usually mean something similar to what guidebooks state. But many cards will take on their own flavor and style that is tailored for you. That is the beauty and sometimes frustration in working with cards, especially for newbies. But using the imagery on the cards to unlock your intuition always leads to nuance and depth. And this is a true portrait of life, is it not?

The Hermit & The Joy of Solitude

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Pictured Above, The Hermit card from: Tarot of the Vampyres, The Barbara Walker Tarot, The Spiral Tarot, The Law of Attraction Tarot, Tarot of the Sacred Feminine, and The Robin Wood Tarot

Few things in human existence are to be more feared than being alone. At least that belief is perpetuated in our current environment. The perpetual bachelor, the lonely spinster, the solitary old man or woman living in the creaky old house at the end of the block. These images evoke fear, sadness, and sometimes even loathing. Less frightening solitary figures such as the monk, the medicine woman, and the yogi come to mind far less frequently.

It has been said there is an epidemic of loneliness in the western world today. Despite the connection that technology affords us, many of us feel more isolated than ever. To counter that, as part of the advent of self-care, things such as “me time,” are encouraged. So, which is it? Can being alone be evidence of doom or can time alone nourish us?

The Hermit can help us contemplate the matter. The Hermit in tarot, naturally, cuts a solitary figure. Often bearing only a lamp to illuminate the darkness, he or she walks alone. The Hermit is alone by choice. Withdrawing from worldly matters and temptations, the Hermit goes within, studies in solitude, seeking enlightenment. What is to be done with the wisdom acquired?

This is where the Hermit interacts with others. The time spent alone allows the Hermit to delve into the abyss and extract, process, and translate mysteries to share with others. The Hermit then may share his or her knowledge with those who seek spiritual wisdom.

What can we learn from the Hermit and what aspects of solitude may benefit us? In this world of constant distraction, going within can not only be scary, but can be considered a luxury. What the Hermit shows us is that retreating from others and going within doesn’t have to be a lonely or frightening experience. Taking time to be alone gives us the opportunity think about what we really want in life. To hear the whispers of our Higher Self.

This may sound like super-mystical nonsense, but ask yourself this: When was the last time you spent quality time by yourself? And when you spent this time alone, what did you think about? Did you think worrisome, negative thoughts? Do you even remember what you thought about? Did you spend this time alone scrolling through social media? (I know I’ve been guilty of that!)

When spending time alone, it is helpful to set aside the usual distractions, and go deeper, even if only for five minutes. Contemplate where you are on your life’s path. Are you happy? What are you missing? What would you like more of in your life? Less of? What are you grateful for? If this is difficult for you to do while sitting inside, taking a walk out in nature can help. Actually, the Hermit is often portrayed going for a walk.

Consider including periods of alone time as part of a self-care routine. Relish solitude and silence where you can find it, whether in large or small doses. The Hermit sees time alone not as a curse or sad circumstance. It is a sacred opportunity to reconnect with the Self and indeed, the Divine. Give it a try!