Editor’s Note: If you want to experiment with tarot cards and don’t have any, we provide a free tarot spread generator using the Celtic Wings spread, which is based on the traditional Celtic Cross spread. This article explains how to use the spread. You can visit Sarah’s website here. –efc
By Sarah Taylor
Swords have played an important role in some of the recent Weekend Tarot Readings — most notably the one this past weekend.
Because of this, I’ve decided to dispense with protocol and focus on Swords as our first exploration into the suits in a tarot deck. Usually, I’d address the suits in the order in which they traditionally appear (i.e. Wands, Cups, Swords, Pentacles — and more on that later), but the Swords are calling loud and clear for attention. Perhaps this is entirely appropriate: As the frequently maligned, much-misunderstood denizens of the minor arcana, we might need a little more time to get to know them, to give them breathing space to come into their own without our preconceptions attached to them, to hear their particular language.
Swords have a ‘fearsome’ reputation in that they have a tendency to bring up more feelings of fear than any of the other suits. Mention Swords, and those familiar with tarot will often react with a slight shiver, a sharp intake of breath through their teeth, as if steeling themselves for something unpleasant. Lay a Swords card down in a reading, and many clients will react similarly: They might not know what Swords represent, but the images for many Swords cards across many decks (including the Rider-Waite Smith deck) don’t pull any punches. Think of the Three of Swords — three blades piercing through a red heart. Or the Nine of Swords — a lone figure in bed, head in hands, wracked with despair. Or the Ten of Swords (which came up in the last Weekend Tarot Reading) — a figure impaled on the ground by ten swords running up his back.
Let’s see if we can give them a different reputation today. At least, let’s see if we can relate to them differently — more objectively.
Swords are the third suit in the tarot’s minor arcana. The minor arcana is based on a traditional card deck, with one extra card in each suit (the Pages in the Rider-Waite Smith deck), and embodies the day-to-day experience of our lives in terms of people, places and events. The four suits in the minor arcana come in a specific order for good reason: Collectively, they represent the transition from spirit into matter, or from the non-incarnate to the manifest.