Knight of Swords: speed, argument and haste

The Knight of Swords is almost always drawn at a gallop, leaning forward, sword raised and wind against him. It is the fastest card in the deck and that speed defines both what is good and what is problematic about what it describes.

Upright, it signals decisive movement in the field of thought and speech: a conversation finally had, an email sent, a well-built argument that cuts off a debate. It also marks pace, events following one another faster than expected. In a spread about a stuck matter, its appearance usually points to the way out running through saying something out loud.

Court figures can be read in three ways: as a person in your circle, as your own attitude or as the energy of the moment. With this knight it's worth trying all three before settling on one. If you read it only as a person, you will end up looking for someone impulsive around you and miss the more useful reading, which is usually your own haste.

The flip side of the gallop is that the knight doesn't look at the ground. Next to Pentacles, it usually warns of fast decisions with slow consequences. Next to Cups, of a frankness that arrives before the other person is in a state to hear it.

Reversed, the two usual readings are aggression in the delivery and the sudden stop. In the first, speed becomes brusqueness, arguing for sport or words that hurt unnecessarily. In the second, the impulse stays put: the conversation rehearsed for weeks and never had. A practical hint: if the spread revolves around something unsaid, it's usually the second.

In the journal it's worth recording what happened after the spreads it came up in. It's a card that marks pace, and rereading the notes months later shows fairly clearly whether in your case it tends to describe your own drive or outside pressure.