Knight of Pentacles | Dan Donche | Darkana Tarot

Published by Alison Cross on

This Knight of Pentacles certainly differs from most other Knight of Pentacles that I’ve seen, and I like him all the better for it!


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:

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.”


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?


Alison Cross

The Tarot's Court Cards are my specialist area.Β  They talk to me. Not LITERALLY though ....

10 Comments

Janet Boyer · 22nd February 2012 at 5:50 am

Yikes, Ali. I'm surprised that you'd support someone who writes stuff like this: http://www.facebook.com/#!/notes/inappropriate-tarot-readings/well-known-tarot-reader-cries-writes-shitty-story/234810306586926 Thought you had better class.

    alisoncross · 22nd February 2012 at 10:00 am

    I think that it's a great deck with a really orginal idea for the artwork. I haz plenty of class πŸ˜€

    Ali x

alisoncross · 15th February 2012 at 9:10 am

I'll go check out that motorcycle card (and that deck!) Arwen!

Ali x

Tarot By Arwen · 14th February 2012 at 5:32 pm

Another motorcycle card I love is the Frank Fradella Adventure Tarot's Chariot. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_SXCRgsLjakc/SDMpM6iY1yI/AAAAAAAAABg/h-FGG0-3OJU/s200/chariot.jpg is a really poor scan of this great image.

alisoncross · 14th February 2012 at 5:06 pm

Yes – why not?! They could be on anything at all πŸ˜€ Those are perfect steeds for those Knights – with the Knight of Wands zooming off at the speed of sound lol!

It will aaaallllll become clear as the deck unfolds lol!

Thanks for commenting, Chloe πŸ˜€

Inner Whispers · 14th February 2012 at 3:23 pm

Hi Ali,

I think it's interesting you assume the other Knight's might all be on other motorbikes. I kinda thought each could be on a "steed" appropriate to their suit element – the Knight of Cups on a yacht, the Knight of Swords in a helicopter, the Knight of Wands… some kind of jet? πŸ˜‰

Thinking about it, I suspect the Vanessa Tarot has the Knight of Swords on a motorbike… the speed element does seem to suit him. On the other hand, if you see a motorbike as a status symbol, maybe that suits the Knight of Pentacles better. Ooh, lots to think about!

Tarot By Arwen · 13th February 2012 at 11:04 pm

I know nothing about motorcycles (and frankly don't want to…lol). I like the position of this knight. He has so much card to cross yet. He's cutting hard to one side and it makes me think he's having to rethink his direction. That goes hand-in-hand with what I see the Knight of Pentacle doing. He's a bit pedantic when compared to the other boys.:D

    alisoncross · 14th February 2012 at 10:41 am

    oh yes, I LIKE that Arwen! I never really thought about how much card he has to cross or his direction – thank you!

    Ali x

alisoncross · 13th February 2012 at 12:25 pm

I love the card, Dan. And I'm quite surprised that it IS a cafe racer as I usually zone out when Valentino and Casey start revving up in the corner of the room. Although I do think Nicky Hayden is a sweetheart πŸ˜‰

The style is excellent – everyone should own at least one black and white deck and I'm planning on buying this one when it comes out πŸ˜€ When you get the LWB entry done – let me have a look and I'll post again πŸ˜€

Thanks for taking a look at the post and leaving a comment, I really appreciate it!

Ali x

Dan · 13th February 2012 at 11:54 am

Holy cannoli, that was an excellent post! Thanks for sharing my art with everybody, and I hate to let the cat out of the bag, but I hadn't even considered half of what you detailed in this one post, so there you go. And yeah, it's a cafe racer. I just pictured the motorcycle with the pentacle headlight, so that's what I went with. I haven't decided yet about the rest of the knights, though…Oh and I'm also a big fan of Banksy…

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