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Swords
Swords are the suit of Air. Their cards are about the mind: thinking, speaking, judging and deciding, and the conflicts that come with all of these. A sword cuts — it can clear away confusion and defend what is right, or it can wound. This suit has a reputation as the hardest in the deck, but what it mostly describes is the work of facing things clearly.
Element and character
Air is light, quick and detached, and the Swords share its strengths and its dangers. At their best they show clarity, honesty, fairness, sharp wit and the courage to name a problem; at their worst, worry, harsh words, suspicion, overthinking and the coldness of a mind cut off from feeling. Many Rider–Waite–Smith Swords show grey or stormy skies, the weather of a troubled mind.
Areas of life
Swords tend to speak about decisions and plans, communication and argument, study, law and principle, and about strain of every kind: disagreement, anxiety, separation, the need to stand one's ground. They also describe recovery — the rest after a struggle and the clearer view that can follow it.
In playing cards
The Swords correspond to the suit of spades, whose name comes from the Italian and Spanish word for sword.
The Golden Dawn signs
The Golden Dawn gave the numbered cards Two to Ten to the decans of the three Air signs: the Twos to Fours to Libra, the Fives to Sevens to Aquarius, and the Eights to Tens to Gemini. So the Two of Swords is the Moon in the first decan of Libra, and the Ten of Swords is the Sun in the last decan of Gemini. These are the Golden Dawn's attributions, which most English-language decks follow.
The Ace as root
The Ace of Swords is the root of the suit: a clear thought, a breakthrough, the power to cut through to the truth. The other numbered cards follow what the mind does with that power — choosing, grieving, resting, fighting, moving on, scheming, feeling trapped, lying awake and finally reaching the end of a painful story, after which a new day can begin. The courts, from the Page to the King, show people or attitudes led by the intellect.
When Swords dominate a spread
When many Swords appear together, the reading is usually about pressure on the mind: hard decisions, difficult conversations, worry or conflict. The Golden Dawn's rule for a majority of Swords was "trouble and sadness". That need not mean disaster. It often points to a situation that asks for honesty, clear boundaries and some care for one's own peace of mind.
In astrology
The Golden Dawn's correspondences, which most English-language decks follow (French, Marseille-based tradition differs for some Major Arcana).
Element: Air — the element of Gemini, Libra and Aquarius
Numbered cards, sign by sign:
- Libra (cardinal): Two of Swords, Three of Swords, Four of Swords
- Aquarius (fixed): Five of Swords, Six of Swords, Seven of Swords
- Gemini (mutable): Eight of Swords, Nine of Swords, Ten of Swords
Twos to Fours hold the cardinal signs, Fives to Sevens the fixed, Eights to Tens the mutable.