Dan Donche, the artist behind this forthcoming Darkana deck (and smarty-pants GENIUS behind the hilariously Inappropriate Tarot Readings) hasn't done the LWB for his deck yet, so I'm just going to go with my own thoughts about this guy and you can tell me what you think.
Pentacles is the suit usually associated with the element of Earth and all the Knights are associated with the element of Air. So he's a mixture of Earth and Air - traditionally, that's a mix that doesn't sit comfortably together. You can read more about the rules of Elemental Dignities on Paul Hughes-Barlow's Super Tarot website here.
So, for me, this guy has a conflict between how he thinks (Fast and Airy, like a Knight) and how he acts (slow, dependable and Earthy, like a Pentacle)
His head moves faster than the rest of him!
Dan has his Knight of Pentacles on a motorbike - by far and away the speediest Knight of Pentacles I've seen for some time! I'm not sure what sort of bike it is, but it looks kind of vintage to me, so I'm going for a cafe racer style.
These date from around the 1960s but are getting pretty popular again....but they are not the fastest bikes on the planet. And, for me, that steed quite suits the Knight of Pentacles.
I'm not sure what Dan's other Knights might be doing - but I'm wondering whether they might be on other motorbikes - maybe a blue Japanese sports' bike, like a Suzuki for the Knight of Swords, a sleek scarlet Italian Ducati for the Knight of Wands......maybe the Knight of Cups could be on a dirt bike?!
The point being - the Cups and the Pentacles guys would be on the slower machines, with the Wands and Swords guys on the madly fast machines. Maybe? Well, we'll see soon enough! rubs hands together* Can't wait to see!
I absolutely love Dan's chosen artwork style for this deck - a sort of grunge, graffiti style that reminds me a great deal of Banksy's work. Here's an example of one of Banksy's stenciled graffiti works in London:
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| Snort: Banksy |
With 'snort' a white trail of paint was followed through the streets of the capital which ended here, at the drug-taking copper. Witty and politically pointed.
Dan says: "The Darkana Tarot Deck combines a modern grunge style with non-traditional tarot symbolism. Every image is personally designed by me......this deck is everything I want to convey.
"Most decks end up being representations of the Rider-Waite deck, which doesn't offer a lot in the way of new, groundbreaking material out there. It is my opinion that the best tarot decks challenge current views and inspire. One way I seek to do that is by using more modern symbolism with clever artistic techniques, all packaged into a current style that's both rich in context and appealing."
"Most decks end up being representations of the Rider-Waite deck, which doesn't offer a lot in the way of new, groundbreaking material out there. It is my opinion that the best tarot decks challenge current views and inspire. One way I seek to do that is by using more modern symbolism with clever artistic techniques, all packaged into a current style that's both rich in context and appealing."
Sounds great doesn't it?!
Dan has keywords on the bottom left corner of his card - for this Knight it is Stubborn Obsessive. The stubbornness is undoubtedly a Pentacles trait.....and obsessiveness - could be Airy? According to the Golden Dawn attributions, two thirds of the Knight of Pentacles astrological associations are with Virgo (the other third is in Leo). And Virgo is pretty obsessive!
The Court Cards can be associated with different Astrological signs - lots of different systems exist and if you want to use one, just pick one and learn it!
If you would like to see more of Dan's forthcoming deck - or even donate a few shekels to help him get it published - you can see more here
So - what do YOU think of this Knight of Pentacles?