Knight of Swords wisdom

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 06 Jan 2005, and now archived in the Forum Library.

noby	06 Jan 2005
A while back, I thought about the :TKNS in a context that has forever changed how I see it and think about it. I see the Swords suit as being aligned with the element air, and the Knights as being aligned with outward, active expression of the element. I thought about how the Knight of Swords can represent someone who likes to argue and debate, and is quite skillful at it, having a quick mind that can easily and quickly range from one idea to the other. It got me thinking about someone with whom I recently had a romantic relationship, who at first struck me as so honest, but whom I came to increasingly distrust. I thought about how he could so convincingly say something, then so convincingly say the exact opposite later on. I began to wonder how many of his words came from conviction, and how many came simply from being able to make a skillful argument. This got me thinking even more broadly. I wondered, "Just how often when we believe something, or make a stand about our views, is it a reflection of a deeply felt truth, and how often is it simply clever argument?" I realized that what I had seen my ex-lover doing was something we all do. Ideas are so pliable, and words can so easily be shaped and constructed to make any point of argument seem right and sensible. I realized that this is part of what Zen masters are getting at when they refuse to use words in a straightforward, rational, argumentative way to make a point. One can make any point one wants with words, and come across as convincing. But it's not truth. Truth is beyond argument. Truth is seeing beyond the veil, seeing beyond the filters we create with our words and concepts. We can make any argument we like, and be completely right. But being right is very different from speaking the truth. Two people can contradict each other and both be right. That's the nature of words and argument.

noby	06 Jan 2005
This isn't to say that there's no use for clever argument. The ability to quickly dash from one idea to the next like the Knight of Swords, to be able to jump from idea to idea in such a flurry of fast-paced wit that it is a seamless and brilliant movement, is a useful ability. A trickster or a :TMAGE is well served by the ability to play others, to get a sense of what others want to hear and how they think, and using words to appeal to that to get the desired result. The :TKNS can be a master manipulator. In our rational world, the ability to construct a clever and convincing argument is key in getting others to respect and pay attention to our ideas. We often form beliefs based on what we want to believe. We look for confirmation of our deepest desires, shaping clever arguments to make what we want to believe seem true. The same man with whom I had the relationship once mentioned interviewing a con man. The con man told him he couldn't con him, and my ex-lover asked, "Why not?" The con man replied, "You don't want to be conned." He said the reason he was so successful at conning people was because he was able to single out people deeply desiring to be conned. It is easy to convince someone who would do anything to believe what they're being told, whether it's that they could easily become rich and never have to work again, or that they have met the love of their lives. It is easy to confuse a clever argument's rightness with its truth. Sometimes we convince ourselves to believe in our own lies because we word them so well to ourselves and others. We make a lie into something that seems so right it becomes true to us, taking on the hard shell and apparent solidity of belief. I wanted to believe certain things about our relationship, so I did. He and I both constructed something out of words because of our need to believe we had the thing we most desired. Our arguments were right, but they did not reflect the truth in many ways. Such is the nature of words and argument. We can make a convincing argument for any point, and a day later make a convincing argument for an opposite and contradictory point, and both times be completely right. So what, then, is truth, if it is not something to be arrived at through rational argument? There is a deeper knowing, when we know something through and through, having learned it from our own experiences, understanding it in a way that goes beyond words. Often, the words we find to try to describe those experiences aren't clever or flashy, like the words of the :TKNS. Often, they are simple, and they don't try to convince anyone of their rightness. Yet sometimes, clever argument and deeply experienced words of truth can meet. Just because an argument is clever does not mean it does not also reflect truth, any more than it means it does. I believe that detecting truth is often a matter of picking up on the feeling and experience beneath the words. How do we know when someone is speaking the truth to us? Often, it is not so easy. There is so much going into it - how clever they are at arguing their point, how much we want to believe it, and how much the words match up to the experience. Often, we can come to the complicated realization that someone was telling us the truth and lying to us at the same time, or that someone was lying to us, but believed their lies as much as we did. Often, only the gut feeling we develop through experience and instinct can send up the warning flag that lies are in our midst.

Fudugazi	06 Jan 2005
Debates are fun, and I love them. I love to play devil's advocate, find the trick. I love words, to juggle with words. That's my Bateleur side, I suppose. And I like to win, to have someone stumped for argument - the Knight of swords, probably. And I use words in my job, and much of what I love doing (I write stories and a film script, I tell stories, I play word-games). Nor am I a sore loser for I love the chase more than the quarry. But I know that none of that is real. As you say, Noby, what is real is behind the veil. The Papesse/High Priestesse's veil. If I can find one sentence in my life, one word, that can draw the veil aside for a short time, then I shall be happy. But I believe it to be impossible: words reveal - and conceal. That is the true heartbreak of a writer.

Fulgour	06 Jan 2005
Bounce (2000): Ben Affleck, Gwyneth Paltrow http://www.popmatters.com/film/reviews/b/bounce.shtml I don't go to movies, or even rent them, so it was funny that I happened to see this one 3 times, back when I watched TV. It must have been on a free cable weekend, and I got hooked. There are so many lies in every sentence spoken it's fantastic! Forget the story, and listen to the way people "project" reality. It may take watching twice, but the humanity is very uplifting.

Milamber	06 Jan 2005
noby wrote: We often form beliefs based on what we want to believe. We look for confirmation of our deepest desires, shaping clever arguments to make what we want to believe seem true. The same man with whom I had the relationship once mentioned interviewing a con man. The con man told him he couldn't con him, and my ex-lover asked, "Why not?" The con man replied, "You don't want to be conned." He said the reason he was so successful at conning people was because he was able to single out people deeply desiring to be conned. It is easy to convince someone who would do anything to believe what they're being told, whether it's that they could easily become rich and never have to work again, or that they have met the love of their lives. That reminds me so much of the "Wizard's First Rule" from the Sword of Truth series of novels. The rule reads: "People are stupid. They will believe anything they want to be true or fear to be true." I figured that really applied here. It's truer than it seems, isn't it? It does seem true that the Knight of Swords has skill in arguing and manipulating. I guess it depends on the person how that skill is put to use.

other	06 Jan 2005
Milamber wrote: That reminds me so much of the "Wizard's First Rule" from the Sword of Truth series of novels. The rule reads: "People are stupid. They will believe anything they want to be true or fear to be true." I figured that really applied here. It's truer than it seems, isn't it? Yes! And an inverted meaning of this is also so: your reality is very much what you believe it to be...or believe that it can be. A shift in perspective can shift your so-called "reality." Hopefully for the better. Sometimes not so much. Occasionally resulting in delusion (dangerous)! Milamber wrote: It does seem true that the Knight of Swords has skill in arguing and manipulating. I guess it depends on the person how that skill is put to use. And, really, if he/she doesn't represent the "truth" (though manipulators rely on their 'opponents' belief in a truth, an outcome, an answer), then the person represented by the Knight of Swords can NEVER really be right...nor can you. It's that existential lone existence - your reality is yours alone. You share it with noone. Those we love and connect with are those whose individual realities strongly and broadly overlap with ours.

The Knight of Swords wisdom thread was originally posted on 06 Jan 2005 in the Using Tarot Cards board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Using Tarot Cards, or read more archived threads.