The Five of Swords: Upright Meanings
- Defeat
- Cowardliness
- Empty Victory
The Five of Swords: Reversed Meanings
- Unfairness
- Defeat
- Loss
The Rider Waite Tarot The Five’s
Fives in The Minor Arcana represent change and the need for change. The energy of Five changes the order of things for either good or bad. Unlike most other cards in tarot where the Upright aspect is deemed to be more positive, the Five changes this pattern by being more positive when Reversed. Five just has to be different, or difficult! When Upright, it can be rigid and narrow as it resists change or struggles with it. When Reversed it becomes all-embracing and accepting. However, because Reversed Cards can be extreme, the conflict of the Upright can become intense. Alas, due to Five’s overriding erratic nature, both the Upright and Reverse aspect can bring great extremes. The orientation of Five dictates the manner in which it deals with or approaches change. The change brought about by Five is often unexpected or chaotic.
The Rider Waite Tarot Suit of Swords
The Suit of Swords is associated with action, change, force, power, oppression, ambition, courage and conflict. Action can be both constructive and/or destructive, sometimes resulting in violence. This suit can also mean hatred, battle, and enemies, and of all the suits, this one is considered to be the most powerful and dangerous. The Suit of Swords deals with the mental level of consciousness that is centred around the mind and the intellect. Swords mirror the quality of mind present in your thoughts, attitudes, and beliefs. Swords themselves are double-edged and in this way the Suit of Swords symbolises the fine balance between intellect and power and how these two elements can be used for good or evil. As such, the Swords must be balanced by spirit (Wands) and feeling (Cups). The negative aspects of the Suit of Swords (i.e. when the Swords cards appear reversed) include anger, guilt, harsh judgement, a lack of compassion and verbal and mental abuse.
The Original Rider Waite Tarot Deck is the most popular and widely used tarot card deck in the world, printed from plates that were destroyed during the bombing of London during World War II. Full of symbolism and deeper meanings, Arthur E. Waite, the intellectual father of the Rider Waite deck, commented that ‘the true Tarot is symbolism; it speaks no other language and offers no other signs.’
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Complete Book of Tarot: When upright, the Five of Swords indicates that you are dealing with some type of loss, defeat or abandonment. There is an important spiritual lesson to be learned from this mournful experience. Sometimes this card indicates that you are the victor who is gloating over his triumph without regard for the feelings of those whom you have humiliated. Alternatively, you may be the loser who is feeling affronted, rejected, abandoned, or treated unfairly. Social science has demonstrated that experiences of humiliation can lead to feelings of anger and sometimes violence.
Complete Book of Tarot: Aleister Crowley, another former member of the Golden Dawn, also referred to Knights as youthful and acknowledged the impossibility of reconciling the various court card traditions the Golden Dawn was trying to synthesize:
Portable Magic: Imagine yourself standing upon the astral altar within a circle of twelve rectangles of glowing light that float in the air above the rugs of the zodiacal trumps like empty doorways. As you utter the name of each trump, point with your extended index finger at its rectangle and see its sign of the zodiac appear within the rectangle in golden light.
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