King of Swords - where did those butterflies come from?

Radiant Rider-Waite Tarot 

The King of Swords is my astrological correspondent, apparently. Aquarius is King of Swords. Let's take a look at him.

He sits on a black and white throne engraved with a sort of inverted triple moon -- but instead of a full moon in the middle, there's a butterfly. Beneath that, two more butterflies. Beneath that, just behind his left shoulder, what appears to be some sort of dancer in the clouds. I don't tend to associate the King of Swords with butterflies or dancers, to be honest. I wonder how they got there. Funnily enough, I never noticed this before in all the years I've used RWS. Let's take a closer look at the original...yep! There it is! Big and bold as life. Actually, that 'dancer' is rendered in more detail in the Original RWS. It's actually a couple, facing us, looking toward the King's head, and the figure in front is pointing. Interesting.

Original RWS

I wonder why the birds in the sky were left out of the Radiant image. I wonder why the King's foot isn't visible. I wonder why his perch on the edge of the promontory is given so much more emphasis in Radiant, and why the Radiant cloud formation looks more like it has a hole in it than the rendering in Original RWS. Maybe no reason. But that hole really catches my eye, and doesn't lend King of Swords good associations!


All these variations could impact the way we read this card. The King in Radiant looks more isolated to me. Without the birds, there is less movement in the card. He appears 'higher' in the scene in Radiant than in Original RWS, more set apart from it. Also, in Radiant, the top of his throne is seen, whereas it goes off the top of card in Original -- this seems to bring him forward a bit in Original, but makes him more static in Radiant, to my eyes. His foot peeping out gives him more a feeling of leaning toward the viewer, whereas having them tucked under the robe in Radiant makes him seem more closed off. Finally, the face in Radiant has a glassy stare, whereas in Original, his eyes seemed cast to the side as if in thought. These are all very subtle cues that will play on the subconscious of the reader and could render quite different results, depending on the sensitivity of the reader to visual cues. (Plus I just prefer the Original, which probably explains why instead of talking about the King of Swords, I've ended up comparing Radiant to Original RWS!)

Well, I'm emerging today here on the blog, a bit like a butterfly (and I did use a butterfly as a logo for a few years, now that I think about it), and I've analysed a card in a King of Swords sort of detachment. So not entirely out of step for today.

Can you believe I have to work today? Sunday working. Oy.

Confronting the stalker cards

'Stalker' cards are those that keep turning up over and over, no matter what deck you're using, what question you're asking, or sometimes even what person you're reading for! The lovely and wise Pearl Annie shared a technique for looking at stalker cards (she calls them 'cards that haunt me') in a group on Facebook called The Tarot Readers Development and Study Group. She shuffles her deck thoroughly and then divides it into five piles to determine what plane of existence the stalker card is attempting to deal with: Fire, Water, Earth, Air or Spirit.

I thought I'd just try that with my two recent stalkers, Knight of Wands and Chariot.

Three cards into the Fire pack, I found the Knight of Wands. I placed the two cards before him face down above the Fire pack, and placed him on top of them facing up. Then after two more cards, I found the Chariot! So I placed it and its previous cards below the Fire pack. 

(It doesn't matter what order you put them, that's just the order I said out loud as I laid them out so I stuck with that, even though normally I would have done Fire - Water -Air - Earth - Spirit. It's early, and I am a witch of dismal memory.) 

Both cards have fallen in the Fire pack, which comes as no surprise at all, but you never know until you ask. Knight of Wands is a Fire card of course, being Wands, and its elemental affinity is Air, so he is Air of Fire. The Chariot is a Water card, associated with the moon and Cancer. It's action that they're calling for, both in thoughts and feelings. I should act on thoughts and feelings, and not just think or feel them. 

I thought it would interesting to take this technique a bit further. What would happen if I looked to see what cards fell in the same spot in the other packs? Would that give me insight into how to support the Knight of Wands and Chariot across all planes? How can my other aspects aid this one that wants so much to come out?

I counted down into each pack and repeated the laying out of the cards as I did for the Fire pack:

Aiding the Knight of Wands

Fire - Knight of Wands, Water - 9 of Wands, Earth - Queen of Wands, Air - 2 of Cups, Spirit - 8 of Wands (confession, the 9 of Wands and Queen of Wands came out reversed, but I turned them over for the photo, so I'm going to read them reversed). 

I can aid the Knight of Wands' manifestation by watching out for feelings of being judged by others, being more sympathetic and forgiving of my physical body and habits, sharing ideas with others, and engaging in a daily spiritual practice. 

Aiding the Chariot

Fire - Chariot, Water - 7 of Wands, Earth - World, Air - 9 of Cups, Spirit - 2 of Pents Rx (confession, 7 of Wands was reversed so I will read it that way.) 

I can aid the Chariot's manifestation, again by avoiding defensive reactions, glorying in my physical self (note the glorified naked form in the card), thinking about where I am satisfied and successful, and accepting that being alive means not always (or even usually) feeling anything like being on an 'even keel'.

In summary 

My stalker cards want very much for me to make progress. The other cards show the blockages to these cards -- possibly they are the real reasons the stalkers keep stalking. They're not waving but drowning, as the poem says. They're stymied by attitudes in the other planes. The cards are telling me to stop seeking balance and get on with things. Lighten up. Stop looking for perfection in myself or my methods. Just DO something. Knight of Wands and Chariot will be satisfied if they see me do something, anything. So stop telling myself it won't be good enough.

Good insights.