Tarot · Swords
Five of Swords
- conflict
- a hollow victory
- self-interest
The picture
A man with a mocking smile gathers up swords while two others walk away dejected; two swords lie on the ground and the sky is torn with cloud.
The meaning
The man has won, but he stands alone. The tradition reads the Five of Swords as a conflict in which there are only apparent winners. It stands for quarrels about being right, and for the question of whether a fight is worth it. Sometimes giving way is the wiser choice.
Reversed
Reversed, it is read as reconciliation after a quarrel, or the wish to end a conflict.
In love
In love it is read as a quarrel in which both lose if neither gives way.
At work
At work it stands for power struggles, rivalry and victories worth little.
As your card of the day
You do not have to win every argument today. Ask yourself what the victory would cost.
The Five of Swords stands for friction. A step back today is no defeat.
Swords belong to air. Readers see in them thought, decisions and plain words, the uncomfortable ones included.
Picture: Pamela Colman Smith, Rider-Waite-Smith tarot, 1909, public domain (Wikimedia Commons).