Knight of Pentacles

Identity

Symbols

• The Held CoinHe holds the coin out before him and does not look into it — not for its value, but as homework still to be done.+

  Waite puts the gesture in one line: 'He exhibits his symbol, but does not look therein.' The Page of the same suit looks 'intently' at his; the Knight raises his before his face and lets his eyes go past it.

• The Heavy HorseNot a charger, but the horse built for the long haul, one step at a time — its strength lives in its feet.+

  Book T mounts this knight on 'a light brown horse'; Smith's is black, with all four hooves planted — the one RWS knight's horse at a standstill, where Swords is 'riding in full course' and Cups 'riding quietly'.

• The Freshly Turned FieldThe earth is already turned, waiting to be sown — the work so far is only the first half; the second still needs the same hands.+

  Book T sets this knight above 'fertile land, with ripened corn'. Smith keeps the land and leaves out the harvest: the furrows behind him are bare, and the horse stands on the grass at their edge, not in them.

• The Trees on the HorizonThe trees stand far off; he knows he will not reach them today — his charge is only today's furrow, made firm.+

  The few trees sit low on the right-hand horizon, the way horse and rider face; at the left the land runs out to a faint low hill. Against a sky of flat yellow, these two small marks are all the distance the card gives.

• Leaves on the HelmetA green sprig rises from his helmet, and another sits on the horse's head — rider and mount wear the same leaves.+

  Waite's horse is 'slow, enduring, heavy', one 'to which his own aspect corresponds'; the matching sprigs draw that pairing. Where Book T crests this knight with 'the winged head of a stag or antelope', Smith puts leaves.

Story

Black horse and pale steel take up nearly the whole card, laid flat against a yellow sky. Both are drawn in profile and both face right, and nothing in them moves: the hooves are planted, the rider sits upright, and only his forearm reaches forward to lift the pentacle level with his face. The horizon runs low, at the height of the horse's knees, so the ploughed land shows as a narrow band of red-brown stripes and the sky does most of the work. No one else shares the field; horse and rider hold it alone, at a standstill.

Correspondences

Elemental Dignity

Shadow

Related Cards

Eight of Pentacles

Knight of Cups

The Hermit