Daily Card - Knight of Swords

This morning I drew the Knight of Swords, which portrays the story of Brer Fox and the Tar Baby. What struck me about this card is the light bulb of an idea above the fox’s head. Usually when a light bulb appears, you see someone standing there, perhaps with a finger in the air, delighting in the “A ha!” moment. Brer Fox wasted no time with this, but went straight to work on the idea. He didn’t stand around, satisfied with the mere idea, he sprung into action.

On the other hand, notice the bucket of tar beside him. While he did run with his idea right away, he didn’t put the cart before the horse. He didn’t jump from the idea to its immediate manifestation, meaning that he didn’t have that light bulb moment, then dive his paws straight into the tar. He took his idea to paper and created that middle step of mindful planning.

This card is just what I needed today, as I actually woke up with a Knight of Swords mindset, determined to get some big things accomplished with gusto! But before drawing this card, I had intended to just jump into them, full steam ahead. See how dangerously close that light bulb is to the bucket of tar? They're practically touching. It's very tempting for me to take an idea and jump into it whole hog, forgoing the planning stage.

Now I am feeling guided not to just leap across the cliff hoping to make it to the other side, but to take it one step at a time, using the rocks across the stream below. I will take some time today to plan my actions more carefully, to help make my manifestation more successful. Usually when I take the time to do this, I lose my initial excitement, and I frequently end up not following through, as my energy fizzles by then. So I have to be careful not to spend too much time planning. It's a delicate balance that I need to work on, so that I actually get things done in an efficient manner, and don't end up just spinning my wheels.

After his careful planning, Brer Fox followed through completely, and successfully created the Tar Baby, so I have to remember that as important as the planning stage is, action must follow. It's not one or the other.

Deck: Whimsical Tarot