Sophie
baba-prague said:Yes, I relate to this more than to people like Robin Hood or John Pilger for this card (in answer to Helvetica). It may simply be that we read this knight differently - and I respect your interpretation Helvetica. We see him as logical, strong - very - in his opinion, and a great leader, but I also see him as ruthless and utterly cavalier at times. So to me, this would not fit with someone like John Pilger, who I think is far from ruthless (strong, determined, yes, but in the end very ethical, which I don't think the Knight of Swords always is).
Wallenstein as comic? Yes, I can see this perhaps, but it isn't the aspect of him that we want to portray in this card. He was a genuinely frightening person in many ways - a brilliant general, hugely successful and also - and rather wierdly - someone whose intellectual interests tended to focus on questions of life and death. His palace is ENTIRELY devoted to various depictions of death, transformation, war and fate. I think the comic fades away when you are familiar with his palace - it's a somewhat awesome and in some ways melancholy place.
Thanks very much for the feed-back, baba! It is helping me understand this card. I don't tend to stick to fixed absolute meanings, from deck to deck - the picture on the deck (and in this case, the history behind it) will inform my understanding. What I wanted to flag was the difference between some knights of swords I've been used to, and Wallenstein. I have always related swords to Justice - and seen the Knight as the cool restless hero or the ruthless Bringer of Justice (and John Pilger though profoundly humane, as you say, is pretty ruthless too!) It's an adjustment for me to see him in a more gothic, more ambiguous light, but one I'm happy to make because it extends my understanding of a court card I have always had some difficulty in grasping (maybe because he goes to fast!). Your crib notes on Wallenstein in the book certainly feed the imagination. Is his palace a place to visit?
As for the "comic" - I was thinking tragi-comic in the way Don Juan can be, eventually getting more and more tragic.