Suit of Swords Card Meanings
The Suit of Swords deal with the problems in your life, your mental processes: learning, writing & speaking. Logic rules here with facts, decisions & intelligence all informing your life.
Within tarot card meanings, the tarot suit of swords represent logic, the mind and your thoughts. They deal with problems and troubles, planning, communication, ideas, your intellect and how you use it. They represent your daily and life struggles, problems in general.
The very nature of a sword is aggressive and warlike. Combined with the swiftness of air, the combination can see situations arise quickly. The ability to see clearly means resolution is quick also.
Swords people are great thinkers. You will find them in study, research, academia, the sciences, law courts and libraries. They love to learn and live to do it in any capacity.
- Keywords for the Suit of Swords
- Decisions, worries, problems, issues, tension, communication, intelligence, disagreements; arguments, logic, reason, cognition, ideas, inspirations, balance, equilibrium, the mind, mentalism, thinking, facts and figures, definition.
- Reversed Keywords
- Vicious, ruthless, manipulative, cold, unemotional, spite and malice, accidents, inertia, indecision, confusion, mental blockages, biased, illogical, mental health issues, negative life changes.
Correspondences for the Suit of Swords
| Other Names | Spades |
|---|---|
| Element | Air |
| Attrubutes | Active, masculine; hot and dry |
| Astrological Signs | Gemini, Libra, Aquarius |
| Direction | West |
| Season | Pagan – Spring |
| Esoteric – Autumn | |
| Self | Ming, Thoughts, Intellect |
| Jungian Function | Thinking |
| Body Part | Head |
| Qabbalistic World | Yetzirah – the Formative World |
To help you learn the associated correspondences for the tarot suit of Swords, see my colour coded minor arcana correspondence charts. They include the four elements, astrology, timing, numerology, card counting values and yes no tarot listings.
A separate post, Timing Events Using Tarot and Astrology, goes much deeper in explaining how to derive timing from each tarot card in the deck using Traditional Tarot Timing and the complex astrological model by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Also colour coded, the post uses no less than seven tables to show the development of the system in an easy to understand tutorial.
The Element of Air and the Suit of Swords
As one of the four elements, air is seen as the intellect, logic and reasoning. An active element, Air circulates and so cleanses. Combined with the Suit of Swords, it carries your thoughts and dreams; is also expansive when hot and is said to be expressive. Your mind or thoughts can be seen as clear or clouded; speech requires breath, which requires air.
Minor Arcana Numerology
Numerology of the Minor Arcana is a concise explanation of the numbers 1 – 10 through the eyes of numerology, modern and ancient, and is designed to assist you in seeing patterns across the suits as well as see the value of using numerology with tarot.
Tarot Court Cards
This group are somewhat complex and require more than just a few keywords to see them expressed with any sense of completeness. I grouped them into their rank in the following posts:
- the pages, princesses and daughters
- the dashing knights, princes and sons
- the gracious queens and mothers
- the kings, knights and fathers.
How to Finally Conquer the Tarot Court Cards also shows you how to bring this tarot family alive in a way you can relate to.
Tarot Card Meanings Supporting Posts
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