Here's my IDS, a bit more "esoteric" than the previous posts. I love these down-to-earth takes on him!
Knight of Cups
Fire of water = springs, waterfalls, rushing rivers
Mostly mutable fire = Pisces
The knight on his horse leaps away from us into the sky. The white horse looks back at us. It looks like he’s saying, “See ya! We’re outta here!” The knight wears green armor with no helmet. He has curly blonde hair. He has large white translucent wings like angel wings. I guess they are supposed to resemble water or waves. He holds up above the horse’s head and large reddish cup with a crab in it/on top. The horse’s hooves are heart-shaped. In the bottom left corner is a peacock with a tail that is all blue and white. It really looks like a wave. This card always seemed much to airy to be a knight. Or cups. The prominence of wings and bird, and white and light blue.
The card as a whole is mutable water, but the crab is present to show that active fire energy is similar to active cardinal energy, so it refers back to Cancer as well as Pisces. It also shows a correlation with the Cancer major, the Chariot, who is carrying the grail. So this must be the grail knight, too. This makes it the knight that is most difficult for me to keep separate from the prince of the same suit. Maybe the prince is Parzifal at the grail castle for the first time, seeing the amazing wonder of the grail for the first time (amazed by snake in cup), and the knight is Parzifal trying to find the grail court again after he has managed to botch his first opportunity to help them (holding up the cup as a goal to be gained). And the Chariot is after he has achieved the grail but before he knows what to do with it?
The explanation (!) of the peacock is Crowley at his cryptic best: “His totem is the peacock, for one of the stigmata of water in its most active form is brilliance. There is here also some reference to the phenomena of fluorescence.” ONE of the STIGMATA of water? Huh? Ok, I’m going to try to figure this out before I go to Snuffin. A stigmata (but that’s really a plural form, as is phenomena, but I’m sure Crowley knew that. Wheels within wheels . . .) is a physical sign of a deep identification with the suffering of another. Got it! Brilliance, that is the glittering effect of sun on water, is a sign of the deep identification of water with fire! Fire of water! I guess the other stigmata of water are, as mentioned above, white water on rivers and white foam on waves, and, yes, biophosphorescence that is sometimes seen on the ocean, light actually coming from the water (actually microorganisms on the surface of the water). Now, how is all that symbolized by a peacock? Which, although well-known for its many-colored tail, is shown with a two-tone tail that looks like a wave? Hmmm. Peacocks are also known for having many “eyes” on their tails. There is a character in Greek myth about this. But wouldn’t that be more airy? Like a bird with feathers for that matter?!! And no eyes are in evidence.
Damn, had to go to Snuffin, and then I realized I knew (well, kind of). The peacock’s tail is the cauda pavonis of the alchemists, the colorful, rainbow-like transition state right before the stone is achieved (symbolized by the cup/grail). So even though it’s all blue and white here, it is directly related to the rainbows on Art and 8 of Wands, another combination of fire and water. Now I’ve got it!
The rest of Crowley’s description is a not-too-flattering take on the Pisces character. Passive, graceful, amiable, responsive but not enduring, sensitive, idle, untruthful, superficial. But deep down, innocent and pure. Really does remind me of Parzifal now.
Hexagram 54, The Marrying Maid, Thunder over Lake. This is an inauspicious hexagram on the whole, but it does counsel that husband and wife working together can make up for each other’s faults, fire and water blending again! But a marriage just for show won’t get you anywhere. Superficial?
In a reading: You are a sensitive person who is searching for something of great value, something that can cause healing and/or more abundant life. You have the capacity to rise above the mundane if you tap into your inner sense of innocence and purity (like the Fool).
