THE SUIT OF SWORDS
King
He sits in judgment, holding the unsheathed sign of his suit. He
recalls, of course, the conventional Symbol of justice in the Trumps
Major, and he may represent this virtue, but he is rather the power of
life and death, in virtue of his office. Divinatory Meanings:
Whatsoever arises out of the idea of judgment and all its
connexions-power, command, authority, militant intelligence, law, offices
of the crown, and so forth. Reversed: Cruelty, perversity,
barbarity, perfidy, evil intention.
SWORDS
Queen
Her right hand raises the weapon vertically and the hilt rests on an
arm of her royal chair the left hand is extended, the arm raised her
countenance is severe but chastened; it suggests familiarity with sorrow.
It does not represent mercy, and, her sword notwithstanding, she is
scarcely a symbol of power. Divinatory Meanings: Widowhood, female
sadness and embarrassment, absence, sterility, mourning, privation,
separation. Reversed: Malice, bigotry, artifice, prudery, bale,
deceit.
SWORDS
Knight
He is riding in full course, as if scattering his enemies. In the
design he is really a prototypical hero of romantic chivalry. He might
almost be Galahad, whose sword is swift and sure because he is clean of
heart. Divinatory Meanings: Skill, bravery, capacity, defence,
address, enmity, wrath, war, destruction, opposition, resistance, ruin.
There is therefore a sense in which the card signifies death, but it
carries this meaning only in its proximity to other cards of fatality.
Reversed: Imprudence, incapacity, extravagance.
SWORDS
Page
A lithe, active figure holds a sword upright in both hands, while in
the act of swift walking. He is passing over rugged land, and about his
way the clouds are collocated wildly. He is alert and lithe, looking this
way and that, as if an expected enemy might appear at any moment.
Divinatory Meanings: Authority, overseeing, secret service, vigilance,
spying, examination, and the qualities thereto belonging. Reversed:
More evil side of these qualities; what is unforeseen, unprepared state;
sickness is also intimated.
SWORDS
Ten
A prostrate figure, pierced by all the swords belonging to the card.
Divinatory Meanings: Whatsoever is intimated by the design; also pain,
affliction, tears, sadness, desolation. It is not especially a card of
violent death. Reversed: Advantage, profit, success, favour, but
none of these are permanent; also power and authority.
SWORDS
Nine
One seated on her couch in lamentation, with the swords over her. She
is as one who knows no sorrow which is like unto hers. It is a card of
utter desolation. Divinatory Meanings: Death, failure, miscarriage,
delay, deception, disappointment, despair. Reversed: Imprisonment,
suspicion, doubt, reasonable fear, shame.
SWORDS
Eight
A woman, bound and hoodwinked, with the swords of the card about her.
Yet it is rather a card of temporary durance than of irretrievable
bondage. Divinatory Meanings: Bad news, violent chagrin, crisis,
censure, power in trammels, conflict, calumny; also sickness. Reversed:
Disquiet, difficulty, opposition, accident, treachery; what is unforeseen;
fatality.
SWORDS
Seven
A man in the act of carrying away five swords rapidly; the two others
of the card remain stuck in the ground. A camp is close at hand.
Divinatory Meanings: Design, attempt, wish, hope, confidence; also
quarrelling, a plan that may fail, annoyance. The design is uncertain in
its import, because the significations are widely at variance with each
other. Reversed: Good advice, counsel, instruction, slander,
babbling.
SWORDS
Six
A ferryman carrying passengers in his punt to the further shore. The
course is smooth, and seeing that the freight is light, it may be noted
that the work is not beyond his strength. Divinatory Meanings:
journey by water, route, way, envoy, commissionary, expedient. Reversed:
Declaration, confession, publicity; one account says that it is a proposal
of love.
SWORDS
Five
A disdainful man looks after two retreating and dejected figures. Their
swords lie upon the ground. He carries two others on his left shoulder,
and a third sword is in his right hand, point to earth. He is the master
in possession of the field. Divinatory Meanings: Degradation,
destruction, revocation, infamy, dishonour, loss, with the variants and
analogues of these. Reversed: The same; burial and obsequies.
SWORDS
Four
The effigy of a knight in the attitude of prayer, at full length upon
his tomb. Divinatory Meanings: Vigilance, retreat, solitude,
hermit's repose, exile, tomb and coffin. It is these last that have
suggested the design. Reversed: Wise administration,
circumspection, economy, avarice, precaution, testament.
SWORDS
Three
Three swords piercing a heart; cloud and rain behind. Divinatory
Meanings: Removal, absence, delay, division, rupture, dispersion, and
all that the design signifies naturally, being too simple and obvious to
call for specific enumeration. Reversed: Mental alienation, error,
loss, distraction, disorder, confusion.
SWORDS
Two
A hoodwinked female figure balances two swords upon her shoulders.
Divinatory Meanings: Conformity and the equipoise which it suggests,
courage, friendship, concord in a state of arms; another reading gives
tenderness, affection, intimacy. The suggestion of harmony and other
favourable readings must be considered in a qualified manner, as Swords
generally are not symbolical of beneficent forces in human affairs.
Reversed: Imposture, falsehood, duplicity, disloyalty.
SWORDS
Ace
A hand issues from a cloud, grasping as word, the point of which is
encircled by a crown. Divinatory Meanings: Triumph, the excessive
degree in everything, conquest, triumph of force. It is a card of great
force, in love as well as in hatred. The crown may carry a much higher
significance than comes usually within the sphere of fortune-telling.
Reversed: The same, but the results are disastrous; another account
says--conception, childbirth, augmentation, multiplicity.
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