nisaba
Earlier today, I was doing some research on storms in general and willy-willies in particular (that is, small dusty Australian landspouts). Sitting here much later to pull a card from the Granny Jones Australian deck I had to laugh - the card I pulled was the Knight Swords, which features four willy-willies!
This card is often an agitated, uncomfortable card, in this deck as much as in many others. On a background of nimbostratus cloud, we see a gold statue of a knight - with suspiciously Papal headwear - on a low trolley, green with red wheels. He scowls. His shield is engraved with images of lightning-strikes breaking up or disrupting the word "life". In the background are traffic lights, Granny's shorthand expressing a desperate need for caution before following through on your impulses. In the background also, are the three snow-capped mountains that we've seen before and will see again, indicating distant troubles. In this instance, they are covered with a dark cloud and are being struck with lightning, indicating a general worsening of the outlook. In each "corner" of the oval image, a lightly-drawn spiral indicates, sometimes, springs for a mechanistic look at life, and more often as I said, a willy-willy in each corner.
Today, because of my earlier activities, I am inclined to see these spirals as willy-willies. Small dust-devils or landspouts, bursts of frantic, unchannelled and generally uncontrollable energy, following unpredictable courses and doing lesser or greater amounts of damage according to the impulse of the moment. And that's what this card indicates: a loose cannon, something or someone that may mean well, but may also cause greater or lesser amounts of harm because of their intervention. See that string at the front of the trolley? It has been cut or torn. They are turned loose - they are no longer following a lead, no longer under control.
Swords are about the intellect, about thinking and thought-patterns. Knights, with their position in the Court, do not have the balance and maturity of the Queens, nor the mastery of the Kings, but they know perfectly well they are better at their suits than the inexperienced Pages. With all of the suits, but particularly with the Knights, this leads to a risk: Being fully aware that they are by nature intelligent, but being slightly immature, they tend to take their intelligence for granted and leap ahead without fully considering their actions or choices, as they assume their intelligence means their first decisions must be good ones even if they didn't actually apply their intelligence in the first place.
As people, they tend to want to be Conquering Heroes. They are the ones who volunteer. They join the services to "serve their countries" in times of war. They help little old ladies across the road - often little old ladies who have already crossed the road under their own steam and are resting briefly. They rescue damsels in distress, even if the damsels want to be in that particular situation. They act on their first impressions - they don't stop to think about the consequences, the appropriateness of their actions, or what may be lying below the surface.
For this reason, as a situation, this card counsels me to resist the urge to be impulsive, to sit on my hands no matter how much my instincts - or my companions - might be urging me on. The shield is a hint that acting too quickly and without enough reflection will result in the disruption of life, and this is reinforced by the clouded, lightning-struck mountains in the background, which also promise that the consequences may well be far-reaching.
The willy-willies interest me. Normally a chaotic and often quite small weather-system, they are highly unlikely to arrange themselves geometrically across the landscape. They bring with them chaos and confusion, dust in the eyes and lungs. Many Aboriginal people believe they are spirits of earth and air, distressed by inappropriate human contact, manifesting in visible form to give a warning. Again, this would underline the need to stop, think about your chosen course of action, and perhaps change direction.
At other times, these same features on the cards have looked to me like metal springs. At such times, they speak to me of immense stored energy, mechanical but rapid activity, "jumping around", and the inhumanity of behaving like a machine, springing around without consideration or compassion - or even weakness.
If this card appears, it is immediately time to stop. Take stock of the situation, think a little deeper, wonder about the information you do not have yet, get over your desire to be a hero and be a little less smug and self-satisfied. After all, the situation isn't as simple as it seems, and armed with your good intentions, you may actually be doing harm to others in your quest to help them.
This card is often an agitated, uncomfortable card, in this deck as much as in many others. On a background of nimbostratus cloud, we see a gold statue of a knight - with suspiciously Papal headwear - on a low trolley, green with red wheels. He scowls. His shield is engraved with images of lightning-strikes breaking up or disrupting the word "life". In the background are traffic lights, Granny's shorthand expressing a desperate need for caution before following through on your impulses. In the background also, are the three snow-capped mountains that we've seen before and will see again, indicating distant troubles. In this instance, they are covered with a dark cloud and are being struck with lightning, indicating a general worsening of the outlook. In each "corner" of the oval image, a lightly-drawn spiral indicates, sometimes, springs for a mechanistic look at life, and more often as I said, a willy-willy in each corner.
Today, because of my earlier activities, I am inclined to see these spirals as willy-willies. Small dust-devils or landspouts, bursts of frantic, unchannelled and generally uncontrollable energy, following unpredictable courses and doing lesser or greater amounts of damage according to the impulse of the moment. And that's what this card indicates: a loose cannon, something or someone that may mean well, but may also cause greater or lesser amounts of harm because of their intervention. See that string at the front of the trolley? It has been cut or torn. They are turned loose - they are no longer following a lead, no longer under control.
Swords are about the intellect, about thinking and thought-patterns. Knights, with their position in the Court, do not have the balance and maturity of the Queens, nor the mastery of the Kings, but they know perfectly well they are better at their suits than the inexperienced Pages. With all of the suits, but particularly with the Knights, this leads to a risk: Being fully aware that they are by nature intelligent, but being slightly immature, they tend to take their intelligence for granted and leap ahead without fully considering their actions or choices, as they assume their intelligence means their first decisions must be good ones even if they didn't actually apply their intelligence in the first place.
As people, they tend to want to be Conquering Heroes. They are the ones who volunteer. They join the services to "serve their countries" in times of war. They help little old ladies across the road - often little old ladies who have already crossed the road under their own steam and are resting briefly. They rescue damsels in distress, even if the damsels want to be in that particular situation. They act on their first impressions - they don't stop to think about the consequences, the appropriateness of their actions, or what may be lying below the surface.
For this reason, as a situation, this card counsels me to resist the urge to be impulsive, to sit on my hands no matter how much my instincts - or my companions - might be urging me on. The shield is a hint that acting too quickly and without enough reflection will result in the disruption of life, and this is reinforced by the clouded, lightning-struck mountains in the background, which also promise that the consequences may well be far-reaching.
The willy-willies interest me. Normally a chaotic and often quite small weather-system, they are highly unlikely to arrange themselves geometrically across the landscape. They bring with them chaos and confusion, dust in the eyes and lungs. Many Aboriginal people believe they are spirits of earth and air, distressed by inappropriate human contact, manifesting in visible form to give a warning. Again, this would underline the need to stop, think about your chosen course of action, and perhaps change direction.
At other times, these same features on the cards have looked to me like metal springs. At such times, they speak to me of immense stored energy, mechanical but rapid activity, "jumping around", and the inhumanity of behaving like a machine, springing around without consideration or compassion - or even weakness.
If this card appears, it is immediately time to stop. Take stock of the situation, think a little deeper, wonder about the information you do not have yet, get over your desire to be a hero and be a little less smug and self-satisfied. After all, the situation isn't as simple as it seems, and armed with your good intentions, you may actually be doing harm to others in your quest to help them.
