Knight of Swords Tarot Card Meaning and Art Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Designation
About the Deck
Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
These cards are featured in my book, "A Concise Guide to the Tarot" by Loren Lundgren. I took the information for the meanings on these tarot cards from "The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, Being Fragments of a Secret Tradition Under the Veil of Divination", by A. E. Waite, 1911, now in the public domain. I edited the tarot card descriptions and meanings for clarity and brevity, modernizing the text. I scanned in the original black and white illustrations of the cards drawn by Pamela Colman Smith, from the 1911 book. I digitally retouched and painted those illustrations in detailed color.
Provenance
Loren Lundgren, © 2021
Description
A knight rides at full speed, as if scattering his enemies. He is the prototypical hero of romantic chivalry. He might almost be Galahad, whose sword is swift and sure because he is clean of heart.Meaning of Knight of Swords from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Upright
Skill, bravery, capacity, defense; hostility, wrath, war, destruction, opposition, resistance, ruin. This may sometimes signify death, but it carries this meaning only when near other cards of fatality.
Reversed
Recklessness, disability, wastefulness.
According to Many Schools of Thought
Papus's Divinatory Meanings
Young dark man. An enemy. A spy.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Upright
A soldier, man of arms, satellite, stipendiary; heroic action predicted for soldier.
Reversed
Dispute with an imbecile person; for a woman, struggle with a rival, who will be conquered.
S. L. MacGregor Mathers's Divinatory Meanings
Upright
A Soldier, a man whose profession is arms, Skilfulness, Capacity, Address, Promptitude
Reversed
A conceited fool, Ingenuousness, Simplicity.
