54-Five of Swords – Upright Thoth Deck

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.

Keywords Upright: Winning in a dispute, the ability to do what you want without regard for the feelings of others, learning a spiritual lesson from losses and defeats, a parting of ways, burying the dead; to the victor belong the spoils.

Timing: 0 Aquarius–10 Aquarius. Tropical, 20 January–29 January. Sidereal, 13 February–22 February.
Astrology: Lovely and affectionate Venus in the first decan of airy Aquarius, realm of the Waite Knight/Thoth Prince of Swords (Air of Air) and the Star (Aquarius). Venus is linked to the Empress.
Number Symbolism: 5 – instability, disruption, loss, crisis, tension, competition, conflict.

Crowley/Thoth: Defeat, loss, unfavorable outcome, malice, treachery, slander, evil-speaking, intellect defeated by sentiment.

When Five of Swords is upright you can pretty much take it that life is going well but that’s when life takes us by surprise.  If Five of Swords is unclear it may help to choose a card from the Major Arcana to provide more insight into what it is Five of Swords is trying to tell you.  If you had a particular issue in  mind, or want to seek clarification on something else, you can also choose again to get more guidance.

This chosen card is part of your upright card reading for Five of Swords using cards from the Thoth Tarot Deck. You will find many more tarot pages that will be of great help if you need tarot card meanings. Use the search at the bottom of the page. We have some amazing tarot books for you to browse. Please see below.

---

Here are some snippets from a few of my favorite books

Complete Book of Tarot: It is possible to arrive at a similar interpretation without taking into account the elemental dignities, thus avoiding the mental gymnastics of the Golden Dawn approach. Looking at the same three-card spread, an intuitive reader might reason that the Ten of Wands indicates an oppressive burden and the Five of Swords a painfully humiliating situation. Because the Ten of Cups is sandwiched between these two difficult cards, the pleasure promised by the Cups is likely to be compromised by the surrounding stressful situations.

Tarot Books

Creative Tarot: As you can see, there is much to draw on from the tarot in the artistic process. What interests you in the cards will be something unique: something about you and your interests, or maybe something I miss entirely in this book. But there’s no right way and no wrong way to use the cards. There are all sorts of different points of inspiration that come from the deck.

Complete Book of Tarot: Offering professional advice. Tarot readers should stick to reading the cards with the intention of empowering clients to clarify their thinking and make their own well-informed decisions. Tarot consultants should not offer advice about matters requiring professional expertise such as medical treatment, legal matters, financial planning, investment counseling, psychotherapy, etc. Such issues must be taken to an appropriately trained professional. Even if the tarot reader happens also to be a doctor or lawyer, the tarot reader should stick to interpreting the cards in an ethical matter. The act of offering professional advice changes the relationship so that the querent becomes the doctor’s patient, the lawyer’s client, and so on; then the tarot reader is subject to the ethical standards of his or her profession.

• Do get in touch if you looked for Five of Swords and we don’t have it listed. We would be more than happy to source the information for you. We hope you visit again for more online tarot information!

Tarot Triumphs: First, I take note of my reactions. The Magician appeals to me. I do not like the Devil (who does?), but I must accept his right to be here. The aim in the Fool’s Mirror system of Tarot is to accept the validity of all the cards and understand the rightful place they have in the pack. The Emperor looks very severe and has a degree of impenetrability. Having noted my reactions, I now want to go beyond them, to see their energies at work with each other, so I employ a few questions to help me: