IN SHORT:
UPRIGHT: Action-oriented, determined, fast-thinking, ambitious aims, a good advocate. Receiving the respect as equal.
REVERSED: Restless, unrealized dreams and goals, up against social an cultural restrictions, attention diverted to short term problems. Obstacles that can keep us at a distance from our goals or values.
KEEP SCROLLING DOWN FOR IN DEPTH EXPLANATION
IN DEPTH:
“Liberating life is impossible without a radical women’s revolution which would change man’s mentality and life. If we are unable to make peace between man and life and life and woman, happiness is but a vain hope. Gender revolution is not just about woman.”
-Abdullah Ocalan, Liberating Life: Woman’s Revolution
The Knight of Swords shows a group well armed armored women dressed in tactical gear, camouflage and traditional floral scarfs. It is the middle of the night, but they are alert and driven, each one holding their point of focus & survey while maintaining a robust conversation about the combined failures and successes of the recent agricultural yield of the community garden. If you ask her who she is, any one of these knights might reply an infinite list of roles. She is a soldier, a poet, a gardener, an expert brick layer, a beloved sister, a reasonable cook, a grandmother’s favorite granddaughter, a student, a friend and best friend to others. The beauty that surrounds the Knight of Swords is that when she is put in a situation that allows and endorses her leadership, knowledge and skills she can do just about anything, her value is beyond any measure or positivist metric.
Upright we witness the Knight of Swords as a group of women dedicated the struggle for liberation on on multiple fronts—each soldier with her gaze fixed on a frontier for revolution and possible victory. This card invokes a moments of personal and collective optimism in the afterglow of battles won. This card ask for decisiveness and endurance in pushing forward the new institutions and conventions to make social gains into concrete living conditions. The Knight of Swords is unwavering in the face of challenges and difficulties, because she can see a social horizon in actions today offer a model for a better tomorrow. The Knight of Swords know that gender is central to revolution, and her experiences have lead her to the belief that “a movement for woman’s freedom should strive for anti-hierarchical and non-statist political formations.” Don’t hang back and wait for liberation, train the body and mind in self-defense and self-determination: commit energy to study, protecting the territory, and building new institutions and initiatives.
Remember, there is no short cut for revolution, it requires the total transformation of our relationship to ourselves, one another, environment and governance. In every thought, every word, and interaction action: strive towards self-determination.
The Knight of Swords reversed shows up when you are full of of energy and motivation but there is nowhere to direct and release this energy. In reverse these knights are separated by shabby walls and social barriers that keep them listless and isolated from one another. As one looks out into a world that seems to offer no pathways to entry, one can feel separated from our peers frustrated and restless.
The conditions and timing may not be supportive, or your friends and family may be holding you back, projecting their fears of danger onto you and your choices. This card in reverse suggests looking for direction, and being at risk of distractions and making big decisions impulsively. When we restlessly look for the next move, we run the risk of missing the moments and movements meant for our liberation. Be patient with your path and stay focused on what is possible on the grand horizon rather than what seems impossible directly in front of you.
The three figures in the Knights of Swords have agreed (formally or otherwise) with one another—and they have decided that this shared vision of the future is worth fighting for, and they are committed to not loosing sight of it.
This Knight of Swords is inspired by the women who have fought in the Rojava conflicts, and Jineology (in Kurdish- Jineolojî), a set of principles and practices that the situate, women’s socio-political autonomy as being direct measure of the state of liberty within a society. This philosophy of gender and liberation is what has been advocated by Abdullah Öcalan, the representative leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the Kurdistan Communities Union. Jineology, holds a set of principles that includes the rejection of the nation-state system, governance through democratic confederalism, and the promotion of self-sustainability through ecological awareness and collective armament. While principles are viewed as a means to combat patriarchy, importantly this philosophy is seen in relief to Western feminism, in which the gains of women’s liberation are always secured and underwritten by the nation-state and capitalism and commodification.
Jineology and the goal of breaking “the honor-based religious and tribal rules that confine women” is one of five pillars in the Kurdish women’s movement in Rojava. Through a series of women’s organizations and institutions like Kongreya Star (an umbrella organization), committed to “protection each other, resisting ISIL and building an egalitarian community in the middle of a war-zone”, the women are re-situating women at the center of Kurdish culture in North and Eastern Syria. Jineology captures what is at stake within the movement for liberation from gender based oppression:
“If success is not attained politically, no other achievement will be permanent. Being successful politically does not entail starting a movement for woman‘s statehood. On the contrary, it entails struggling with statist and hierarchical structures; it entails creating political formations aiming to achieve a society that is democratic, gender equal, eco-friendly and where state is not the pivotal element. Because hierarchy and statism are not easily compatible with woman‘s nature, a movement for woman’s freedom should strive for anti-hierarchical and non-statist political formations.”
Oppression and liberation manifests beyond the laws of the nation state—it manifests itself upon the conventions created within the social. The Jineologist philosophy and practices exemplify the kind of complex and practical forms of self-determination that this card aims to put into your field of vision.
FURTHER READING:
https://www.freeocalan.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/liberating-Lifefinal.pdf
monthlysmokeandmirrors.com 