The suit of Swords: all 14 cards

The suit of Swords is the air suit of the tarot. Its cards are about thoughts, words, decisions, truth and conflict. When Swords fill a reading, the mind is busy. This page gathers all 14 Swords cards in one place, with a short meaning for each, the story the suit tells from Ace to Ten, and simple ways to read it.

At a glance

• Element: Air Later tradition
• Themes: thought, words, conflict, truth-telling and worry
• Other names: Blades in a few modern decks; Spade in Italian decks and Épées in the Tarot de Marseille
• Playing card suit: spades
• Zodiac signs: Gemini, Libra and Aquarius Later tradition
• Cards: Ace to Ten, then Page, Knight, Queen and King

What the Swords are about

Swords cover the way you think and talk: ideas, plans, arguments, honesty, worry and fair judgment. They are famous for their hard pictures, and the suit does include heartbreak, anxiety and painful endings. It also includes clarity, rest, recovery and moving on.

In the Rider-Waite-Smith deck of 1909, Pamela Colman Smith drew a full scene on every one of these cards. That makes the suit easy to learn: look at what the people in the picture are doing, and you already know most of the meaning.

All 14 cards of Swords

Here is each card with its upright keywords from my book. Follow the links for the full meaning, reversed meaning, symbols and a spread for every card.

• Ace of Swords: mental clarity, truth, new ideas
• Two of Swords: indecision, stalemate, difficult choices
• Three of Swords: heartbreak, sorrow, betrayal
• Four of Swords: rest, recovery, contemplation
• Five of Swords: conflict, defeat, betrayal
• Six of Swords: transition, moving on, healing
• Seven of Swords: deception, trickery, strategy
• Eight of Swords: restriction, imprisonment, fear
• Nine of Swords: anxiety, worry, fear
• Ten of Swords: betrayal, painful endings, collapse
• Page of Swords: curiosity, mental agility, sharp questions
• Knight of Swords: action, ambition, drive
• Queen of Swords: independence, clarity, intellect
• King of Swords: authority, truth, intellectual power

The story of the Swords, Ace to Ten

One easy way to learn a suit is to read the numbered cards as a story. Each number has a shape that repeats across the suits, and the suit gives it a setting.

The Ace brings a clear idea. In the Two the mind is stuck between options, and in the Three a painful truth breaks through. The Four rests. The Five fights and wins at a cost. In the Six you move toward calmer water, and in the Seven someone uses strategy or tricks. The Eight is trapped by fear, the Nine kept awake by worry, and the Ten marks the bottom, with dawn on the horizon.

This story is a teaching tool. It is a modern habit, not something Waite or Smith wrote down, and you do not need it to read the cards. Many readers find it helps the cards stick.

The court cards of Swords

The Swords courts are sharp people. The Page is a curious student, the Knight charges ahead with conviction, the Queen sees clearly and speaks plainly, and the King judges fairly.

Court cards can describe a person in your life, a part of you or an approach to the situation. The gender or age of the figure does not limit who the card can describe.

Reading the Swords in a spread

Many Swords in one reading usually means thinking, talking or arguing is central. It can point to stress or conflict, and it can also point to a breakthrough in understanding.

No Swords at all can suggest that the question is not about decisions or conflict, or that it may help to think the matter through more clearly.

Look also at which Swords cards appear. Low numbers point to beginnings, middle numbers to struggle and adjustment, high numbers to completion. Courts point to people or attitudes. Read the pattern first, then each card.

The history behind the suit

Historical The four suits are older than tarot. They came to Europe with playing cards in the late 1300s, and Italian and Spanish cards still use cups, coins, swords and batons. When tarot appeared in 15th century Italy, it added the trump cards to this ordinary pack of four suits.

Later tradition In Italian decks the suit is Spade and in the Tarot de Marseille it is Épées, curved blades woven into patterns. Smith drew straight swords and big skies full of wind and cloud. Air is the element of the mind, and her Swords scenes are often about what we think and say more than what we physically do. The pairing of suits with elements comes from occult writers of the 1800s and was fixed in its best-known form by the Golden Dawn.

A spread for the Swords

Use this four-card spread when you want to look at thought and the other themes of the suit in your life right now.

1. What am I thinking? My main thought.
2. What is true? The fact under the worry.
3. What do I need to say? The words that help.
4. How do I decide? One clear step.

Shuffle the whole deck, not only this suit. If one of the cards that turns up is a Sword, pay extra attention to it.

Common questions

What element are the Swords?

Air, in the Golden Dawn system used by the Rider-Waite-Smith deck. Some older systems give Swords to fire, so read the guidebook of your deck.

What playing card suit matches Swords?

Spades. The Italian and Spanish suit of swords became spades in French playing cards.

Why are so many Swords cards scary?

Because the suit deals with conflict and worry. The pictures are strong on purpose, and they describe states of mind, not fate.

Keep learning

The Swords are covered in the lesson Swords of my free Tarot for Beginners course. For all four suits and the numbers in one place, see The Minor Arcana: suits and numbers made simple, and for the people cards see Tarot court cards without confusion. You can browse every card in all the card meanings, and my book The Novice’s Guide to Tarot has the full entry for each card.

Sources

• A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (London: Rider, 1910), Part III.
• Pamela Colman Smith and A. E. Waite, the Rider-Waite-Smith tarot (London: Rider, 1909).
• Michael Dummett, The Game of Tarot (London: Duckworth, 1980).
• Lauri Mukkala, The Novice’s Guide to Tarot.