Tarot

Swords

KING OF SWORDS
Whatsoever arises out of the idea of judgement and all its connexions - power, command, authority, militant intelligence, law, offices of the crown and so forth.
Reversed - Cruelty, perversity, barbarity, perfidy, evil intent.

QUEEN OF SWORDS
Widowhood, female sadness and embarrassment, absence, sterility, mourning, privation, separation.
Reversed - Malice, bigotry, artifice, prudery, deceit.

KNIGHT OF SWORDS
Skill, bravery, capacity, defence, address, enmity, wrath, war, destruction, opposition, resistance, ruin.
Reversed - Imprudence, incapacity, extravagance.

PAGE OF SWORDS
Authority, overseeing, secret service, vigilance, spying, examination, and the qualities thereto belonging.
Reversed - More evil side of these qualities; what is unforseen, unprepared state, sickness is also intimated.

TEN OF SWORDS
Whatsoever is intimated by the design; also pain, affliction, tears, sadness, desolation.
Reversed - Advantage, profit, success, favour; but none of these are permanent; also power and authority.

NINE OF SWORDS
Death, failure, miscarriage, delay, deception, disappointment, despair.
Reverse - Imprisonment, suspicion, doubt reasonable fear, shame.

EIGHT OF SWORDS
Bad news, violent chagrin, crisis, censure, power in trammels, conflict, calumny; also sickness.
Reversed - Disquiet, difficulty, opposition, accident, treachery; what is unforseen; fatality.

SEVEN OF SWORDS
Design, attempt, wish, hope, confidence; also quarrelling, a plan that may fail, annoyance.
Reversed - Good advice, counsel, instruction, slander, babbling.

SIX OF SWORDS
Journey by water, route, way, envoy, commissionary, expedient.
Reversed - Declaration, confession, publicity; one account says that it is a proposal of love.

FIVE OF SWORDS
Degradation, destruction, reversal, infamy, dishonour, loss.
Reversed - The same; burial and obsequies.

FOUR OF SWORDS
Vigilance, retreat, solitude, hermit’s repose, exile, tomb and coffin.
Reversed - Wise administration, circumspection, economy, avarice, precaution, testament.

THREE OF SWORDS
Removal, absence, delay, division, rupture, dispersion, and all that the design signifies naturally.
Reversal - Mental alienation, error, loss, distraction, disorder, confusion.

TWO OF SWORDS
Conformity and the equipoise which it suggests, courage, friendship, concord in a state of arms, affection, intimacy.
Reversed - Imposture, falsehood, duplicity, disloyalty.

ACE OF SWORDS
Triumph, the excessive degree in everything, conquest, triumph of force. It is the card of greatest force, in love as well as in hatred.
Reversed - The same, but the results are disastrous; another accounts says - conception, childbirth, augmentation, multiplicity.