Three Knights in a Spread: All Action No Theory?

violet_crown

I recently did a CC spread for myself regarding my ongoing job search and pulled three knights: knight of wands in the future position, knight of cups above and knight of pentacles in outcome position.

My specific question when I pulled was along the lines of "how is my job search progressing/what is the current state of my job search". The three knights indicate a lot of action and movement, but a lot of different kinds of action. I'm wanting to figure out first if it's point to something I should be doing, or actions I should be taking? Or if I should understand these knights as a certain state of affairs going on around me. Perhaps both?

I looked at the advice position for some idea, and found the Empress there. I feel she has a more passive/receptive energy that seems to be at odds with everything else. Maybe it's "you've done your part; let the lads handle it now"?

Any thoughts would be appreciated! Thank you.
 

Barleywine

I think you're on the right track. The Knights are fundamentally long on action and short on reflection. I note that the Knights here show an interesting progression, like you start out walking, slowly gathering steam (Knight of Cups); build up to a "full-tilt" charge (Knight of Wands) and wind up standing still (Knight of Pentacles) in the closest thing to contemplation a Knight can manage. But I also see (at least in the RWS version) that the Knight of Wands is "running against the tide" by facing in the opposite direction to the other two Knights. Maybe he isn't fully prepared to face an uncertain future.

Probably because they represent the element of Air, Waite defined three Knights in a spread as "lively debate;" perhaps here they're showing that you need to have a lively debate with yourself over the right course of action to take. "Just winging it" would seems to scatter your energies too randomly.

I always read the "near future" and "outcome" positions as a pair, one showing "first steps along the path" and the other the "final destination." I consider the cards between the two as showing ways (like "sign-posts") for getting from one to the other. There is an old method that says the "cross" section (first six cards) is about the situation itself (thus the "time-line") and the "staff" section (last four cards) is about the querent's handling of the situation. I would look at what sits between the Knight of Wands and the Knight of Pentacles to see what slows things down to a standstill and work with those.
 

headincloud

Three knights in a spread can be a warning of arguments to come. Things are moving for you in your working life though.
 

violet_crown

Thank you for the replies!

Barleywine said:
I think you're on the right track. The Knights are fundamentally long on action and short on reflection. I note that the Knights here show an interesting progression, like you start out walking, slowly gathering steam (Knight of Cups); build up to a "full-tilt" charge (Knight of Wands) and wind up standing still (Knight of Pentacles) in the closest thing to contemplation a Knight can manage. But I also see (at least in the RWS version) that the Knight of Wands is "running against the tide" by facing in the opposite direction to the other two Knights. Maybe he isn't fully prepared to face an uncertain future.

Probably because they represent the element of Air, Waite defined three Knights in a spread as "lively debate;" perhaps here they're showing that you need to have a lively debate with yourself over the right course of action to take. "Just winging it" would seems to scatter your energies too randomly.

I always read the "near future" and "outcome" positions as a pair, one showing "first steps along the path" and the other the "final destination." I consider the cards between the two as showing ways (like "sign-posts") for getting from one to the other. There is an old method that says the "cross" section (first six cards) is about the situation itself (thus the "time-line") and the "staff" section (last four cards) is about the querent's handling of the situation. I would look at what sits between the Knight of Wands and the Knight of Pentacles to see what slows things down to a standstill and work with those.
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I really like this idea of progression. I don't think of Knights of Pents as standing still, though, imo. Maybe the energy and momentum of the Knight of Wands will evolve into something I end up committing to ultimately and prompts me to roll up my sleeves and get to work! :D

The Empress also suddenly clicks into place for me if the advice is, "You have to give yourself and the process time to gestate before it becomes what you want." A lot of the past cards were Aces as well, so the progression idea also works there, too.

This was really insightful. Thank you!
 

Barleywine

violet_crown said:
Thank you for the replies!



I really like this idea of progression. I don't think of Knights of Pents as standing still, though, imo. Maybe the energy and momentum of the Knight of Wands will evolve into something I end up committing to and want to get down to business.

The Empress also suddenly clicks into place for me if the advice is, "You have to give yourself and the process time to gestate before it becomes what you want." A lot of the past cards were Aces as well, so the progression idea also works there, too.

This was really insightful. Thank you!
Click to expand...

I was just reacting to the image on each of the RWS Knight cards: in Cups, the horse is walking, in Wands it's leaping (but in the wrong direction) and in Pentacles it's standing stock-still with all four feet firmly planted. With the Empress, it suggests a pause in the action to re-evaluate your goals.
 
Significators from a different deck? non-person significators? How "established" is the couple in the 2 of Cups?