Ice and fire come to me today, filter into the still calm balance of The Hallway of Beginnings. Today I turn my attention to The Knight of Swords, to go in search of the calm in the eye of the storm, the still point in the centre of the passionate embrace, and to rise to the high vantage point in the midst of a deluge of incessant thoughts. I wish to find the dispassionate view; it is this that I seek today.
I rise from my chair with a focus and a consciousness, and an intention and desire to understand this ability to cut away all that is extraneous and superfluous; a desire to cut through like a laser to the very essence, the meaning, the intent. I need to find the heart within the tangle of thoughts and influences and to still the emotional waters of my soul enough to hear the song that sings to me, for it is there, I know that it is there. I stand for a moment, as I usually do, before the large heavy door, and ready myself for the unknown, firmly gripping the handle, opening it and stepping through the piercing blue silken banners that proclaim The Knight of Swords.
I walk out into a barren tundra landscape, and am assaulted by a savage eastern wind of cutting cold. The chill bite of snow saturates the air, and flakes of ice swirl around my head, carried on the wind, spinning around me, freezing my cheeks in this polar world of pale and light. I look further into the landscape and see ahead of me a huge figure, some kind of giant, lumbering with huge steps, throwing himself this way and that as he strides about the land in a an apparently random fashion. I bravely walk out and try to attract his attention, he has come fairly close to me, and I try to grab the heel of his foot, but he shakes me away with the ease that I would shake a child’s doll away, so I retire to a safer distance and watch him, worried now that he might squash me with one misplaced step of his enormous stride. I watch him as he carries on, and see on closer inspection, that he is not as random as I thought at first. Although he is taking huge steps, there seems to be some method to his actions, for every now and then, he casts down something onto the ground, that then explodes into balls of burning flame, which in turn, blossom and grow into trees of fire.
I understand that he does not want me near him because he is afraid that I will get hurt, and that he needs to finish what he is doing first, before he can talk to me. I watch from a safe distance, amazed at the flowering bushes of fire that he is creating, until I see that he is calling me over towards one particularly beautiful piece of work that he has created. He seems to have become smaller too, because as I approach, I see that his stature seems only that of a tall man, rather than the giant that I saw at the beginning, he has come down to size and looks as if I could now communicate with him. We sit together looking into the beautiful flames of the burning bush, watching them grow and die, blossoming and moving like a nest of fiery snakes, crimson and orange, gold and yellow, and he asks me if I want to come with him to see the mountains, to fly on the top of the world. Of course my answer is yes, and he takes me by the hand and leads me quickly up the sides of the mountain, leaping and jumping in huge magical steps that carry me along with him. By the time we reach the top I feel exhilarated and alive, and we run and jump along the ridge walk that leads from one peak to another, and it feels like we are two giants on top of the world, the air is thin and I feel light headed but wonderfully alive, I can breathe with a lightness that feels liberating and free. Either side of us I see that the steep and perilous escarpments drop away sharply, giving way to deep and cavernous lakes full of dark inky water, still as the grave and as deadly. We pick up speed and move ever faster, never faltering, his steps immediate and decisive, free and sure without any apparent consideration of where to go next. I see that the knight uses his intuition to make the rapid decisions required, for to falter for an instant would mean certain death and destruction to him. The consideration of his emotions cannot come into this, for to do so would not serve him here, he would die. I enjoy the exhilaration and the speed at which we are travelling and I feel as free as a bird, flying in the clean clear air of the peaks….. it feels like I can see forever from here.
Soon, I see him moving ahead of me, jumping from peak to peak, and he moves from me, I see that he is growing again, becoming taller and broader, assuming his mythic proportions, and I let him go. I stand and watch him as he carries on his journey, alone and in his element, able to change his direction at a moment’s notice, balanced on the perfection of the edge of life, braving the easterly wind, crystals of ice and snow scattered around his hair and forming on his face as he summons fire from the air casting his flowering forms down the mountainside, like a child, watching them grow, and flower and again die, in the endless creation and destruction of his ideas, the children of his mind.
As he disappears from my vision, I hear the clarion call, and see the ice blue colours of the portal, hanging in the air ahead. I feel frozen tears on my lashes, a strange contrast with the burning that I feel in my heart, as I step with a weary tread, back through the doorway into The Hallway of Beginnings.
The Knight of Swords
The Lord of the Winds & the Breezes
King of the Spirits of Air
King of the Sylphs & Sylphides
20 degrees Taurus to 20 degrees Gemini
My name is Joanna Grant, I am an Astrologer, Tarot Reader and Writer, who lives on the 
beautiful Beara Peninsula in the South West of Ireland. I can often be found at home, deep in arcane research, or practicing some new form of divination whilst burning the dinner! My children probably wish that I was “normal” but may well remember my eccentricities fondly when they come to face the challenges of their own paths. My long knowledge of Astrology leads and informs my practice, in offering guidance, empowerment and healing, helping others to lead a more authentic and magical life. You can read more about me here.
If you would like to join my mailing list, you can do so here: Sign-Posts.
All new sign ups will get a free solar return chart interpretation for the current year. (Birth details required)
Joanna-Kate Grant 