Knight of Swords
It’s the 1st of March and the sun has been shining all week, it’s beautiful, but in our political world times are rough to say the least. I don’t know about you reader, but my spirit is exhausted, it took me a lot to muster up the motivation to set my ritual to write this blog tonight. I’ve said it a few times already throughout this series, but uncertainty is painful, not only is it painful but it is mentally and emotionally exhausting. There are thousands of people losing their jobs, thousands including myself that may be losing access to financial aid for college, many many people are losing access to life saving programs and so much more.
I have been hesitant to even talk about the Knights right now because I feel like my world is being held captive by the quick and deadly individuals that are allowed to hold power. And quite frankly, that energy is pissing me off. But I guess what better time to talk about Sword and Knight energy? We watched our President and Vice President corner, condescend to and disappoint another leader that is doing everything they can to save their country from getting taken over, and our leaders chattered like petulant high school children. Quick and rash things were said in a display of dominance that will have consequences for all of us, I hope those that chose to vote for the “strong man” and gender roles are happy with their decisions.
Big sigh…. The Knight of Swords can be a positive card, it has the energy of the friend or lover that tells you to quit your dead end job and start your own business. Or that could be you having those thoughts yourself and you are about to start slashing things from your life to make your goals more accessible. Let’s take this into a burlesque scenario, because burlesque is something that makes my depression demons take a seat on a lemon juice and pucker down a few notches. (That was wild, but I’m sleepy and the Holy Basil tea is kicking in.) When we, as burlesque performers are trying to upgrade our costumes, we have a tendency to sell old pieces or upgrade them if it’s possible. Upgrading our costumes is something we are doing in hopes of booking better paying gigs, or being able to tell our story a little more clearly. But not all of us can just buy the costumes or props willy nilly, so we need to sell things, move things out of our space, move on.
Sometimes when we cut out shoes, hula hoops, skin suits, ripped latex skirts, mismatched rhinestones, and bras that don’t fit anymore, we are able to see what we have that works. We can see the potential a little more clearly in a costume, and the story unfolds. The Knight of Swords helps give us the swift Airy energy to get rid of the things clogging up our efforts. And then it is the energy that gives us the courage to upgrade our look, it is the energy that taps into glamour magick putting us into the view of the eyes we want to catch. Air is expressive so when we draw this card it is asking us to take action in an expressive way!
When we get turned down for a festival, we can use the energy of this card to ask a mentor to help us improve, we can pay for a class, or take a trip to see performers in another city to get inspired. I pulled The Fool tonight along with the Knight of Swords, and my interpretation of those two together is that yes, you’re going to probably screw up, but it’s important that you take steps to forge your own path. That is my goal in life currently and it’s not easy. I’ve worked really hard for other people my entire adult life, I have too quickly given over intellectual property to those that abused my nature and those things give me pause to run with my own wolves. But what kind of witch would I be if I didn’t start using divination to start testing new connections? We live, we learn, we cast those circles.
Don’t forget to cast this week, keep doing your energy work, keep making your teas and elixirs and most of all don’t let your spirit get brought down by things you can’t control. We are all in this and we will keep fighting for a better world for all. Blessed be.
Photo from The Moon Dust Tarot by Florance Saul