September 3.- 5., 2014: Knight of Swords

Danica

THE LORD OF THE WINDS AND THE BREEZES;
THE KING OF THE SPIRITS OF AIR
The Knight of Swords – King of the Sylphs & Sylphides
FIRE of AIR

Meditation pattern: Place 7 of Disks, 8 of Swords, and 9 of Swords side-by-side, with the
Knight of Swords above them. Below the two Swords, place Atu VI, The Lovers.

Traditional Description: A winged warrior with crowned, winged helmet, mounted upon a
brown steed. His general equipment is as that of the Knight of Wands; but he wears, as a crest, a
winged six-pointed star, similar to those represented on the heads of Castor and Pollux, the Dioscuri,
the twins of Gemini (a part of which constellation is included in his rule). He holds a drawn
sword with the sigil of his scale (Yod) upon its pommel. Beneath his horse’s feet are dark-driving
stratus clouds.

YOD of VAV (FIRE of AIR): When the fiery, creative, commanding impulse of the paternal
Yod expresses itself through the intellectual realm of Air, we see the egoic, self-conscious
faculty of reason, a piercing and brilliant intellect, separative and discriminating, controlling,
commanding, and imperious. These faculties, which have permitted civilization and science to
emerge and flourish, give enormous ability and advantage; yet they are also cruel, callous, and
impersonal.

Yod of Air is all these fierce and penetrating things. “The Dominion of the Intellect” is its cognomen.
Yod in Yetzirah is the power of brilliant intellect, vivid and mighty imagination, and all related
cognitive capacities mobilized to support the Will. This Knight’s chief weakness, though, is
that, in Yetzirah, awareness is dividual, cut off from conscious relationship to the Supernals; so
there is less certainty in Swords that one’s perception of Will and its purposes is True.

He rules the heavens from 20° Taurus to 20° Gemini (including the constellation Auriga). Dual Gemini
corresponds to Zain, which means “sword.” The sword divides; cognition is a dual, binary function;
and Gemini is ruled by mental Mercury. The Knight corresponds to the first two decanates of Gemini,
ruled, respectively, by Jupiter and Mars, and called INTERFERENCE (or SHORTENED FORCE) and
CRUELTY. “Cruelty and Interference” is a good description of the Knight’s basic nature.

The Jupiter decanate, INTERFERENCE, expresses “Fire of Air” as the lightning and thunder of
the storm. This decanate is an example of “overkill” and obfuscation, of too much force applied
to small things. In Swords, these traits commonly degenerate to malice, pettiness, and domination.
The Mars decanate, called CRUELTY, indicates despair, pitilessness, malice, argument, rage,
revenge, suffering, anxiety, and distress. However, if very well-dignified, it can signify mental
discipline, analysis, precision, inquiry, and discrimination.

His shadow aspect is shown by the last decanate of Taurus, attributed to Saturn, and called
FAILURE. Quite the opposite of the Knight’s usual temperament, it is characterized by inertia and
slow development. It requires patience and careful labor. More than the simple antithesis of the
Knight, this is his buried fear from which he flees, and against which he overcompensates.

In divination, his character is active, clever, subtle, fierce, courageous, skillful, discriminating;
with a piercing, brilliant, and disciplined intellect and powerful imagination; precise, analytical,
inquisitive; but inclined to dominate, to overvalue small things, and to apply disproportionate
force to small matters, unless he is exceptionally well-dignified. If ill-dignified: deceitful, tyrannical,
separative, suspicious and distrustful, cruel, malicious, argumentative, rageful, vengeful,
pitiless, petty, callous, and cagey.

Danica

He is quick, shifty, fickle; initiator in the realm of ideas, but – his powers are only thoughts; without the harmonious relation with Will and Intuition, he is the terror of Ruach.
Superficial character, even intentionally evil… (spreading misinformation, using words in order to hurt, confuse, deceive, mislead someone…).
The figure of the Knight is pointed downwards in his motion, his face is not visible (so fast he can not be even noticed?) and his arms seem like merged into the swords; his green cap/crown signifies connection to Venus and Daleth – the best/highest in him shows up when he moves with Love, out of Love, etc.
Yod of Air: masculine, fatherly, moving, penetrative aspect of the mind; he is oriented downward, to manifestation/Assiah; he acts through separation, division, destruction.
This is how the mind is in its most dynamic aspect: clutching to every impression, cruel and interfering…
Zain: his essence is reconciliation and marriage of Opposites as polarities, hence, he works on division, seeks/creates/shows two opposite sides of every phenomenon or experience. Basically, he is like a child playing, in need for a partner to play with, utterly lost without such companion.
Impulse of Will in the realm of mind: its effect is often disturbing, destructive for every fixed thought-form.

Bringer of news (postman, news-reporter, etc.).
He does not seem as a scientist, nor an explorer, but rather someone who works does the “brainstorming”; can also be “the devil’s advocate”; seller, tradesman, etc.
Row dynamics of the mind; superficiality is his main flaw.
Appearance of ideas in the mind, randomly without any particular order; everything depends on how the mind is trained!
Negotiator with agenda; advocate; politician; rationalist; atheist; scholastic.
Seven-of-Disks as shadow side: relation to application of knowledge and materialization of ideas.

Invasive intellect; entering into the new area of mental exploration; starting to learn a new language.
Curious; babbler, or a mum if the shadow side is pronounced (& very proud about own thought and ideas!); can be annoyingly intrusive.
Able to show every thing from two opposite sides ; if harmonious/refined, Paradox is his weapon, if not developed, Paradox is his point of “crucifixion”, last border and worst “enemy”.