Looking at the Knight in comparison to the Page, we can see how the Knight has grown into his position.  For one, he is nearer the plowed field and less in the open expanses of Nature.  Or perhaps, the field is indeed much larger and he has brought more of the element under his control.  We can even see this in how the pentacle itself has “settled” more into his hand.  No longer perched on fingertips and seeming to float away, the Knight cups the Pentacle in his palm with a solid (although still receptive) grip.  He is still in the position of receiving abundance and the mysteries of his element, still a student regarding his work.  His work, however, has changed.

Now, he sits astride a horse.  This horse allows him more freedom to move, to explore.  It also is both a sign of and an agent of power.  Both the armor and the horse show that the Knight is equipped for duty, for more active encounters with the element.  Gone, though, are the green clothes of the Page.  Here, the Knight is dressed entirely in the rich reddish browns that also color the plowed expanse of land that stretches completely across the card.  The Knight is showing greater mastery to the degree that he is able to move about, experiment more, and utilize the element more to his own wishes, but is he successful?  The field here is as barren as field in the Page card.  Perhaps the seeds are planted.  Perhaps we are seeing the field before the crop comes up.  Perhaps we are seeing the field the following spring and he has already achieved one successful harvest (this would certainly explain his rise in station and ability to handle the element).

Knights symbolize this action, this movement, this application of what the Page was only contemplating before.  Horses and armor are not cheap things — either the Knight was successful and was able to purchase these things for himself, or he has been enlisted by a higher ranked noble to put his knowledge to use and this noble has equipped him for the job.  There is very little movement in the Knight card.  The Knight stands still, and his willingness to wait is a great virtue.

We, like the Knight, go through our own stages when learning a new skill.  While we may start mostly just looking at the new topic of our study, eventually, we will have to take action.  We may find our skills growing through working for someone else and taking responsbility for creating a desired outcome with our skills.  There is also the danger of imbalance as we grow in our ability to manage a new skill.  We might put so much time into shaping things to our desire that we fail to allow Nature a hand in the process.  When we do not work with Nature, when we are armored and we don’t have our feet on the ground (because we are perched on our power), we may find that we still cannot bring our knowledge to harvest.  However, earth is a slow moving element — well grounded, but slow.  We must cultivate more than money, skills, and knowledge in order to succeed here.  We must also cultivate patience.

Lessons From The Knight: Gaining power in the earth element through application and responsibility, importance of be patient and diligent, our earth element mastery grows in density and substance over time (becomes more real, weighty), as we grow in knowledge we find more freedom to explore and better protection in which to do so, we begin to feel as though we have a duty and a mission that we are obligated to fulfill either for ourselves or another.

Read about the Queen of Pentacles…

Photo of Knight of Pentacles card, art by Pamela Colman Smith under direction of A.E. Waite, originally published by the Rider Company, 1909.