The suit of swords is the air suit, and it is about thought, decisions, and the words we use on other people and on ourselves. Most people flinch at it, because of the blindfolds and blades in the pictures, and it is not a cruel suit. It is a suit about the sentence you have been saying in your head, and a sentence can be checked and changed in a way that a feeling cannot.
The fourteen swords run from the ace to the king, and they follow one thought from the first clear idea to the point where it has been said out loud. A reading heavy with swords is a reading about your mind, and the useful question is whether your mind has been telling you the truth or telling you a story.
Air, thought and the words we use
Air is the element you cannot see and cannot do without, and thought is the same, which is why the suit of swords has so much weather in it. The same clear sentence that ends a bad arrangement can be the one you say to yourself at two in the morning. The picture for the whole suit is the reply you have typed and deleted three times while standing at the sink, and the swords are about which version you send, and the one you keep deleting is usually the plain one.
The suit of swords from ace to king
The Ace of Swords is a hand holding up a sword with a crown on its point, the first clear thought. The Two of Swords is a woman in a blindfold with two blades crossed over her chest, the choice you have decided not to look at, and the Three is the heart with three swords through it under rain. The Four is a knight lying still on a tomb, rest that was prescribed, and the Five is a man gathering up swords while two others walk away, an argument won at the cost of the people you won it from.
The Six is a boat carrying a hooded woman and a child, leaving quietly with what you can carry, and the Seven is a man tiptoeing away from a camp with five swords in his arms, the shortcut. The Eight of Swords is a bound and blindfolded woman among eight swords with a loose rope and a clear path behind her, stuck in a story about being stuck. The Nine is someone upright in bed with both hands over the face, and the Ten is a figure face down with ten swords in the back and the sky lightening behind.
The four people are thought at four ages. The Page holds the sword up and looks over his shoulder, quick to repeat what he heard, and the Knight charges with the sword out, the message sent before it was reread. The Queen of Swords sits in profile with one hand raised, the one who has already worked out what is going on and will tell you if you ask, and the King sits facing you with the sword upright, the decision made and owned.
The fourteen cards of the suit of swords
- Ace of Swords clarity, truth, breakthrough
- Two of Swords stalemate, avoiding a choice, truce
- Three of Swords heartache, a hard truth, grief
- Four of Swords rest, recovery, a deliberate pause
- Five of Swords conflict, hollow victory, being right
- Six of Swords moving on, transition, calmer water
- Seven of Swords strategy, discretion, working around it
- Eight of Swords feeling stuck, limited options, self-doubt
- Nine of Swords worry, sleepless nights, dread
- Ten of Swords an ending, rock bottom, it is finished
- Page of Swords curiosity, questions, learning
- Knight of Swords speed, conviction, direct action
- Queen of Swords clear sight, honesty, independence
- King of Swords clear judgment, authority, fairness
The sharpest cards, read kindly
The Three of Swords is the card people are most afraid to turn over, and it is a wound with a fact inside it. Something you had been guessing at has been said, and the guessing is over, no comfort in the first week and a kind of floor by the third. The card is not a forecast of heartbreak on its way; it describes one that has already happened, and the odd steadiness that follows knowing.
The Nine of Swords is dread at three in the morning, when a problem the daytime could hold grows to a size it did not have at noon. The fear is genuine and its arithmetic is wrong, and the morning shrinks the thing considerably. If that version has been running for weeks, a doctor or a counselor is a better next step than another card.
The Ten of Swords looks like the worst card in the deck and reads as relief more often than not. Something is finished, and the sky behind the fallen figure is already getting light. What ends with the Ten is the checking, the wondering every morning whether this is the day, and people who draw it often say the worst part was the waiting.
Reversed swords
A reversed sword is thought turned inward, delayed, or being put down. The Two reversed is the blindfold coming off, the Eight reversed is noticing the rope was loose, the Ten reversed is the first morning you did not check your phone before getting up, and the Knight reversed is the row you keep rehearsing and not having. How we read a turned card is set out on the reversed tarot cards page, and this is the suit where the omen habit does the most damage.
Tonight, the sentence word for word
The suit of swords is at its most useful when you write the thought down, because a sentence on paper can be read back and a sentence in your head only gets louder. So tonight, write down the one you have been telling yourself about the situation, word for word, then cross out every word in it that you could not prove to a stranger. What is left is usually shorter and easier to live with, and it is the version the Ace of Swords was holding up all along.
Questions people ask
What does the suit of swords represent in tarot?
Air, which in a life is thought, decisions, and the words we use on ourselves and on other people. Swords cards are about the mind’s weather and about what gets said, which is why the suit holds both the clearest card in the deck, the Ace, and the ones people fear most. A sword cuts both ways, and the suit is honest about that.
Is the Three of Swords a bad card?
It is hard and it is not a forecast. The Three of Swords describes a hurt that arrived with a fact inside it, the moment the guessing stopped, and it is heavy in the first week and steadier by the third, because knowing is a floor and guessing was not. Drawn about the future it is more often a truth you already suspect than a heartbreak on its way.
Why are so many swords cards painful?
Because thought is where we do our hurting, to ourselves at three in the morning and to other people in a sentence we did not reread, hence the blindfold, the rain, the face in the hands. The suit also holds the Ace, the Four and the Six, the clear head, the rest and the quiet boat out, and a swords reading asks which sentence you are choosing.