The Major Arcana in the Tarot mark profound, archetypal moments in life. We circle through them as we move from birth to death, spiral around them, slip backwards and forwards. When they show up in a reading, usually major events are afoot, the kind of things that transform you. The Minor Arcana, the suits of cups, wands, swords and pentacles, may echo the themes of the Majors, but in a daily way, the small losses, the small joys, the myriad changes, the ends and beginnings that mark our days. The Court cards though, have always proved more difficult for me to interpret. Am I this card? Should I be? Does it represent someone coming into my life? someone I already know? Is it an energy I should embrace or one I should beware of?
Today I picked the Knight of Quills (in the Jane Austen Tarot, swords in the Rider-Waite deck). In the Jane Austen Tarot, the Knight of Quills is depicted by Frank Churchill, a rich and handsome young man in Emma. Austen writes in Pride and Prejudice, "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife." Frank is a young, single man of good fortune and so, in Jane's world, his marital prospects become of primary importance to the women of Highbury. Frank is not single, though he pretends to be. He is secretly engaged to Jane Fairfax, a beautiful young woman of limited fortune. In the novel, he delights in teasing Jane, in pretending interest in other women. He is calculating and deceitful, not malicious as much as self-serving.
Air of Air is the astrological attribution of the Knight of Quills (Swords). He possesses speed, wit, intelligence, and a decided self-interest unleavened by emotional vulnerability. Which doesn't mean he doesn't love, only that he is deliberate and calculating, even in love. This isn't me, but I do know this Knight, loved this Knight, and found myself as devastated as Emma might have been had she fallen for Frank Churchill's charms.
So what does the Knight have to teach me? What has he come to say? "Take action. Move quickly and surely, with all your wits about you." Hmmmm. At a still point in my life, at the eye of the storm of the last few years, I can't seem to hear that still quiet voice inside, I don't know what to do. I live each day, stay within the outlines of a life already drawn. I'm not really acting. Not really. The questions of what now? what next? still hover round, my constant companions. Take action? And do what? Isn't that the $64.00 question.
What Would Jane Do?
"High spirits and youth are as natural a match as romance and ladies of a certain age. Yet heedless, undirected spirits can precipitate heartache as much as overly romantic recklessness can ruin an entire family. Cleverness untempered with kindness is memorable only for the pain it causes in others. When intelligence is subservient to compassion and wisdom, the journey may be less diverting, but it will also prove to be more harmonious."
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