Five of Swords

What it is

The Five of Swords is one of the numbered cards in the tarot's Minor Arcana, the fifth of the Suit of Swords. Like the other sword cards it is linked with the element of Air. Readers take it to speak of quarrels, loss, and victories that cost more than they give. The card has two lives: in much of Europe, tarot packs are dealt for card games, while in English-speaking countries, where those games are little played, the same cards are turned mostly to fortune-telling. A reading built around this card is understood as a picture of an argument gone sour, and of the question every such win raises, whether the prize was worth the damage done to the people left behind.

Where it comes from

The suit of Swords ties the Five of Swords to the Latin-suited card families of Spain and Italy, and places it in the tarot's Minor Arcana. From there the card's story splits by country. Over much of Europe, tarot packs have served chiefly to play card games, and this card is dealt like any other in the pack. In English-speaking lands those games never took hold, so the deck was taken up instead for telling fortunes, and it is there that readings of the card's meaning grew up. The picture most readers know today, a man gathering swords under a storm-dark sky, comes from the Rider–Waite deck.

How it is done

Which way up the card falls decides its message. Upright, it is read as a mark of conflict, hostile rivalry and quarrels settled by force, with a warning that such wins scar both relationships and reputation. Reversed, it can point to making peace after a fight, to grudges that keep rankling, or to the regret that follows a win that gave nothing. Readers weigh the card against the questioner's concern: asked about work, it may suggest office politics or unfair competition; asked about love, rows and one partner ruling the other. The card also turns the question back on the person asking, who is invited to weigh whether they stand as victor or as the defeated party.

Tools and materials

The card is read through its picture. In the Rider–Waite design a man in the foreground carries three swords and glances back with a look that can be read as smugness or as doubt; two more swords lie on the ground, and two beaten figures walk away beneath a stormy sky scored with jagged clouds. Each part carries meaning for readers: the three held swords stand for gains won by force or trickery, the two abandoned ones for what the losers gave up, and the torn clouds for an air still tense after the fight. The suit itself belongs to the element of Air.

What it is for

Fortune-tellers offer this card's message as counsel rather than fate. Drawn upright, it is taken to warn that a dispute has turned adversarial and that the means used to win may be questionable or destructive; the harm to friendships and standing, readers hold, will outlast the win. In questions of work it is read as office politics, bullying or rivals advancing at colleagues' expense; in questions of the heart, as rows and one partner ruling the other. Reversed, it is offered as a sign that reconciliation is wanted, or as a caution that old grievances still poison ties. Either way it presses one question, whether the fight is worth its price.

Peoples and places

The card's use differs sharply by region. Across much of Europe, tarot packs are dealt for games, and the Five of Swords takes its ordinary place among the cards of the pack; the suit of Swords runs through the Spanish and Italian card families too. Among English speakers the old tarot games are little known, and the deck found its main work in fortune-telling instead, which is where readings of this card's meaning grew up. One card, then, leads two lives: a game piece in European play, an oracle in the English-speaking world.

Compare and confuse

The card sits in the Minor Arcana beside the other numbered Swords cards, and its suit marks match the swords of the Spanish and Italian playing-card families. The same pack leads a double life: in Europe it is mainly a deck for games, while in English-speaking countries the cards are read for guidance rather than dealt. So one and the same Five of Swords can be a plain game card in one country and an oracle in another.

Questions people ask about Five of Swords

Good reading and sources

• Five of Swords on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• Wikidata recordOpen data