Five of Swords
Five of Épées (Tarot de Marseille) · Lord of Defeat (Golden Dawn) · Defeat (Thoth)
In the Five of Swords a smiling victor gathers the weapons of two departing opponents, a card of conflict in which winning and losing are both diminished.
Upright conflict · defeat · hollow victory · humiliation · self-interest · tension
Reversed reconciliation · making amends · lingering resentment · walking away · regret · end of a feud
- Astrology
- Venus in Aquarius (first decan)
- Element
- Air
- Number
- 5
- Golden Dawn title
- Lord of Defeat
- Yes or no
- No
Upright
The Five of Swords upright speaks of a quarrel that leaves no one better off. One party has the swords, the others have walked away, and the sky is broken. The Waite–Smith tradition reads it as defeat, loss of face and the temptation to win at any cost; whether the reader is the smirking figure or one of the departing ones depends on the question and the cards around it.
In relationships the card often marks a fight in which hurtful things were said, or a pattern of point-scoring that erodes trust. It may also suggest someone who must always have the last word.
At work the card can indicate office politics, unfair competition, a deal that benefits one side too much, or an argument won at the price of goodwill.
Its counsel is to count the real cost. Ask whether the fight is worth having, and whether there is any way to end it without anyone being humiliated.
Reversed
Reversed, the Five of Swords is commonly read as the chance to make peace after a quarrel. Those who walked away may return, apologies may be offered, and a feud can end. Some readers see the opposite emphasis: resentment that lingers long after the fight, or regret for something said in anger.
Not all readers use reversals; many interpret the card upright in every position. Those who do usually treat the reversal as the conflict moving toward its aftermath, where the choice between grudge and reconciliation is still open.
The image
In Pamela Colman Smith's design a young man in the foreground looks over his shoulder with a faint, knowing smile. He carries two swords on his left shoulder and holds a third, point down, in his right hand, while two more lie on the ground at his feet. Behind him, two figures walk away toward the sea; one has his face in his hands, the other has turned his back entirely. Jagged clouds streak across a pale sky, suggesting wind and recent turmoil.
History
The Tarot de Marseille and most other decks before 1909 gave the Five of Swords no scene at all, only interlaced blades with a straight sword through the centre. Smith's group of victors and vanquished was new to the Rider–Waite–Smith deck, as were nearly all her minor arcana scenes. Waite's Pictorial Key (1910) calls the young man "disdainful" and reads the card as degradation, destruction, revocation, infamy, dishonour and loss, with reversed meanings of a similar character. The Golden Dawn gave the card the title "Lord of Defeat", which Crowley kept as "Defeat", and in the Thoth deck the five blades are bent and broken.
Symbolism
Five is the number of disruption in the Golden Dawn sequence. Its sefirah is Geburah, severity, the sphere of Mars and of necessary conflict, and each of the fives describes the crisis of its suit. The divided figures carry the theme: no one stands with the victor, and the ground between them is empty. The swords lying on the earth suggest weapons dropped in surrender or taken as spoils.
The decan assigned to the card is the first of Aquarius, ruled by Venus. Commentators have found the pairing apt: Venus, the planet of harmony, sits uneasily in a cool air sign, and the result is that love and agreement fail. Waite and later writers do not suggest that Smith drew directly from the decan, and the image can be read on its own terms.
In a reading
Readers often ask which figure the querent identifies with, as the card shifts meaning between winning unkindly and losing painfully. Beside the Seven of Swords it may suggest dishonesty; with the Six of Cups, a family dispute; with Temperance, a call for compromise. In an advice position it can warn against a battle that cannot be won cleanly. The suit's broader arc of Air, from clarity through conflict to ruin and renewal, is summarised in the minor arcana.
Sources and further reading
- The Pictorial Key to the Tarot — A. E. Waite, 1910
- The Book of Thoth — Aleister Crowley, 1944
- The Golden Dawn — Israel Regardie, 1937
- Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom — Rachel Pollack, 1980
- Tarot for Your Self — Mary K. Greer, 1984