By Sarah Taylor

I think what I’m most proud of is being able to recognise opportunities, when they happen, when they’re in front of me. It’s a kind of instinct.

— Dominic Miller, musician

When I look at the Knight of Sword’s crown (that is, the crown of his head — though, like a regal crown, this is also the seat of his power), I tend to see what I have come to understand as an eclipsed Sun.

Knight of Swords, The Judgement, The Chariot from the Röhrig Tarot deck, created by Carl-W. Röhrig. Click on the image for a larger version.

This feels all the more significant, given we have just emerged from a lunar eclipse on Oct. 8, and are heading into a partial solar eclipse on Oct. 23. Something that was set in motion last Wednesday is now coalescing in preparation for an emergence in the next 11 days — and it has a particular quality to it.

The appearance of a Court Card in a tarot reading refers to an aspect of the personality that is in active expression. It may well also refer to this particular aspect as it is reflected through the presence of someone else in your world (in other words, it heralds the appearance of someone who exhibits its qualities), although my approach is to start with the person for whom I’m doing the reading — you — and then extend the card’s presence to other/s if it feels relevant.

The Knight of Swords — which is the King of Swords in this deck — is the “yang masculine”: the Swords suit is masculine in nature, and the King is the masculine aspect of his suit. We all have the yang masculine; it is not limited to 50% of the population. When he is active, what you experience is the ability to direct your mental faculties in a way that can be both productive and transformative. Look at some of the words on the card:

“passion,” “ambition,” “flexible thinking,” “straightness concerning aims“.

This implies a clarity to the way you perceive something that may not have been present beforehand. In the context of the Knight’s eclipsed Sun, which from a psychological perspective speaks of the Shadow (an aspect of psyche whose illumination is obscured), it is a clarity or new understanding about yourself. This then translates into your vision, and a singular movement towards a particular goal.

The fog has lifted; the Knight is in action; it is his piercing sight that causes the shift into the next two cards.

The penultimate card in the tarot deck, The Judgement is a trumpet blast that reanimates you. It is revelation; it is the ending of a particular way of life and the beginning of liberation. Some decks depict Judgement as a phoenix rising from the ashes — the implication being that you have been through the fires of transformation of late. Now it is time to emerge and account for yourself under the eyes of a watchful part of your own divinity.

You are accountable to that force that lies within that is there to wake you up, no matter what. You can ignore the trumpet blast if you so choose. However, the events that it heralds simply reappear in another form. Look into the eyes of the figure in The Judgement. She is The High Priestess who has now come to consciousness in a particular respect; the second card in the Major Arcana has now become the second-to-last card — and what a change in the interim!

So now that you are able to dust yourself off, newly emerged, and look around you, where is that yang masculine aspect of you coming into force in a way that is helpful for you to make your next move? Because move you will, if the next card is anything to go by. Something, or someone, is heading towards you, and you are heading towards them. Are you ready? It is not going to be wasting any time — this, that has you in its sights as much as you are directed towards it.

There is a meeting on the horizon, and it promises motion. Now is the time to apply your powers of organisation, flexible thinking and, yes, passion, to align yourself with what it is that has just been birthed in you. You came through the fires for something, and to remember something. Hold that remembrance in mind; it has taught you about holding to yourself — and holding to your Self — in a way that was heretofore unfamiliar, or impossible, to you.

Get your ducks lined up, listen to the wisdom inside you, and await the mystery of a new way. It is what you’ve been preparing for; you know what to do.

Astrology/Elemental correspondences: Knight of Swords (the fiery aspect of air), Judgement (Pluto), The Chariot (Cancer)

If you want to experiment with tarot cards and don’t have any, we provide a free tarot spread generator using the Celtic Wings spread, which is based on the traditional Celtic Cross spread.This article explains how to use the spread.

By Sarah Taylor

“Whatchoo doin’? Pissin’ around when you’ve got work to do!”

These were the exact words that came out my mouth when I was laying the cards on the scanner in preparation for publishing today’s reading. In that accent too — which sounds a tad incongruous coming out the mouth of a Brit, but there you go.

The Devil, Eight of Cups, The Hermit from the Röhrig Tarot deck, created by Carl.W- Röhrig. Click on the image for a larger version.

This reading will be short, not-so-sweet, and yet loving. A loving slap around the chops for you today.

Because there you are, stuck in no-man’s-land in the Eight of Cups. Indolence. A cobweb of chaos; a mass of bloated, amorphous swirls and adipose that need to be brought into sharper focus; dead trees bowed under their own lifelessness; a metallic river — polluted — feeding nothing and going nowhere.

Except you have places to go. Two, here, to be precise. You can go left, to The Devil, or right, to The Hermit. Or both — because both lead to the same place: out of your predicament, your pissiness, your lifelessness.

There is life, you know. There is. It is beautiful, vital, energising love. It is just that this particular scenario in the Eight of Cups is not it. What the Eight of Cups serves is the ability to make a different choice if you want to remove yourself from, as the card writes, “uncertainty,” “inhibition,” and “mud.”

So how do you break free? By turning formlessness into form; by looking within; by going into the shadows to meet what is waiting for you there. But before you do, here is the one instruction that is handed to you on a small, torn-out piece of spiral notepad, to equip you with what you need to make the journey:

Find your own light, wise leader. Think things over. Rest in your own centre.

What you avoid is the source of your greatest light, you know that? What you have fought so hard not to see is the seat of your most potent and authentic creativity. What you have now — Indolence — is not what you were expecting. That’s because you are leaning away from a meeting with what drives you. And when you see what drives you, you become the driver.

There is no shame required when you take the journey to the centre. What creates the shame is your fear of taking that first step. What will you find there that is so awful?

Or — what will you find there that is so awe-full?

Isn’t that typical: what weighs you down is your own light in disguise.

Don’t be afraid to venture into the darkness. It is in the adventuring into the black interior night of inner space that one mines, and finds, gold. Not the fool’s gold that lies on the surface of your lackadaisical heart, your stifled feelings — is that what you’ve been bowing your head towards all this time, figuring it was going to give up some riches to you?

No, no. The gold you’re looking for takes some work, some effort. But guess what? It’s real.

Go for the real. Go inside. Look at what calls your name. Contemplate the possibility of your own liberation.