Knight of Swords tarot card from the Simply Tarot deck

Knight of Swords Tarot Card Meaning

The Feisty Knight

✦

Ambition • Impulsiveness • Force

A young and impetuous male that you find rather charming bears an influence on you now. Be wary as he will act with superficial knowledge of a situation. He is quick to change opinion and therefore direction, meaning he could leave your life as quickly as he entered it.

In a situation, the Knight represents a hasty change of opinion, or a knee jerk reaction, to someone or something in the Subject’s life. There is a lot of energy and movement with this card and they may be impatient for things to move on. The Subject should consider if there are loose ends to be tied up, or responsibilities to be seen to, before they gallop down off down their new path.

As a person the Knight is clever, witty, talented and energetic. He is easy to admire and everyone wants to be involved or associated with him. He is not very mature, though, and has little in the way of consistency and dependability, unless it suits him at that time. His opinions and beliefs are flighty because he has no real experience to draw on and so his opinions, beliefs and allegiances, continually fluctuate. These characteristics are damaging to his personal relationships and hard on people who come to rely on him. The Knight regularly hurts people and, as soon as he perceives a situation has become stale or boring, he will move on.

⌵

❦

Love & Relationships

Emotion moves recklessly fast beneath this card. Attraction, anger or desire pushes forward impatiently, often before either person has considered the emotional consequences properly. Intensity can feel thrilling right up until it leaves destruction behind it.

◈

Material Life

Momentum outruns caution here. Decisions, ambitions or reactions move so quickly that practical consequences struggle to keep pace behind them, creating instability beneath the illusion of control. Speed feels powerful right up until something important is left damaged in its wake.

✎

Notes from the Artist

The Knight of Swords represents a young person, someone who is technically more of an adult than a child but who is often pretty immature. This Knight likes excitement, but he is not inclined to know the why and wherefore of a matter and can be impulsive (he holds aloft his Sword, ready to charge with no challenge in sight). He can be flighty and change his direction with little notice (his horse is trotting aimlessly, not to any obvious destination) and so is not very reliable.

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From the archive

The Original Artwork, Reimagined

Before Knight of Swords became part of the Simply Tarot collection you see today, it was drawn and painted by hand for the original 2011 Tarot House Deck. The style has evolved, but the meaning and character of the card remain at its heart.

Original hand-painted Knight of Swords tarot card by Patricia House from the 2011 Tarot House Deck — 2011 **Original 2011 artwork Knight of Swords** Hand-painted by Patricia House

A young Knight, clothed in blue, sits on a trotting white horse, searching for excitement around the countryside. He holds aloft his Sword as if to answer a challenge, but no challenge can be seen in the picture. — Today **Knight of Swords reimagined** The current Simply Tarot artwork

The original first edition

Buy the Original 2011 Deck

The card shown above is part of the original 78-card Tarot House Deck. Every image was drawn and painted by Patricia House before the deck was professionally printed by Cartamundi in the UK. A limited number from the original print run are still available.