Knight of Swords
Cavalier of Épées (Tarot de Marseille) · Prince of the Chariot of the Winds (Golden Dawn) · Prince of Swords (Thoth)
The Knight of Swords charges headlong on a galloping white horse, sword raised: a card of swift, bold, sometimes reckless action in pursuit of an idea.
Upright action · ambition · speed · assertiveness · courage · drive · directness
Reversed recklessness · impatience · aggression · scattered energy · rushing · tactlessness
- Astrology
- 21° Capricorn – 20° Aquarius (Golden Dawn Prince)
- Element
- Air of Air
- Golden Dawn title
- Prince of the Chariot of the Winds
- Yes or no
- Yes
Upright
Upright, the Knight of Swords is the suit's charge. In the Waite–Smith tradition the card shows a mind in full cry, eager to prove a point, fight for a cause or reach a goal without delay. The energy is impressive and sometimes admirable, but it can also run ahead of its rider. As a person, the Knight is articulate, decisive, impatient and ready to argue.
In love it may describe a whirlwind approach, a passionate debate, or a partner who speaks bluntly and acts quickly. It can also suggest moving too fast for the other person.
For work and money, the card favours bold moves, ambitious projects, competitive situations and quick decisions. It warns against trampling colleagues or launching ventures without thinking through the details.
Its advice is to act decisively, but to look where you are riding: speed is a virtue only if the direction is right.
Reversed
Reversed, the Knight of Swords is often read as energy without discipline. Impatience turns into aggression, debate into quarrel and action into haste. Plans may be launched too soon or abandoned halfway, and words may be harsher than intended. Some readers see a person who talks constantly but does little.
Many readers do not use reversed meanings and read every card upright. Those who do commonly take this card as a reminder to slow down and consider the consequences before charging ahead.
The image
Smith's Knight of Swords rides at full gallop across a windswept landscape. He wears armour with a red cloak and a plumed helmet, and holds his sword high as if leading a charge. His white horse stretches forward with its mane flying. The harness is ornamented with small emblems of birds and butterflies, creatures of the air. Behind him, trees are bent by the wind, clouds are torn into strips and birds scatter across the sky.
History
Mounted knights appear among the court cards of the earliest Italian tarot decks and in the Tarot de Marseille, where the Cavalier of Swords sits on an armoured horse with his blade raised. Smith's version adds a sense of urgent movement that the older cards lack. In the 1910 Pictorial Key Waite compares him to the romantic hero of chivalry, even suggesting that he might almost be Galahad, and lists skill, bravery, capacity, defence, enmity, wrath, war and destruction; reversed, imprudence, incapacity and extravagance.
The Golden Dawn court cards were Knight, Queen, Prince and Princess, and they do not map neatly onto Waite's King, Queen, Knight and Page. A widely used modern scheme, followed here, equates Waite's Knight with the Golden Dawn Prince, the "Prince of the Chariot of the Winds", and Waite's King with the Golden Dawn's mounted Knight; other readers reverse the equation.
Symbolism
The charging horse is the force of the intellect in motion, and its whiteness has been read as the purity of the rider's intention. The torn clouds and bending trees show the effect of that force on everything around it. Birds and butterflies, both creatures of Air, repeat the suit's element.
In the scheme used here the Knight of Swords is "Air of Air", the most purely intellectual figure in the deck. As the Golden Dawn Prince he rules from 21° Capricorn to 20° Aquarius and is linked with Tiphareth and the letter Vav. Crowley's Thoth Prince of Swords rides a chariot drawn by winged children, an image of ideas pulling in different directions.
In a reading
As a person the Knight of Swords is often read as someone forceful, argumentative and fast-thinking; as an event, a sudden development or rapid change. Next to the Chariot or the Eight of Wands it emphasises speed; with the Five of Swords it can warn of a fight. In an advice position it may say "act now", while in a position of challenge it warns against haste. See the Golden Dawn for the order's court-card system.
Sources and further reading
- The Pictorial Key to the Tarot — A. E. Waite, 1910
- The Book of Thoth — Aleister Crowley, 1944
- The Golden Dawn — Israel Regardie, 1937
- The Qabalistic Tarot: A Textbook of Mystical Philosophy — Robert Wang, 1983
- The Encyclopedia of Tarot, vol. 1 — Stuart R. Kaplan, 1978