By Sarah Taylor
When I looked at the Princess of Swords this afternoon, what immediately came to mind were the words that Brad Pitt spoke about his former lover Juliette Lewis: “She is truth!”
The Princess of Swords stands for truth. Or, at least, that’s what she stands for in her light aspect. Her truth is the one that sets her, and others, free. She is a liberator through the severing of mental bonds.
In a sense, the Princess of Swords is the figure in the Eight of Swords when she realises that she holds the key to her own freedom. This is evidenced in the sword that she holds in the crook of her arm. It has not been used to wound (not yet, anyway: that happens in the Nine of Swords); it is has been used to loosen the ropes around her. It even cuts through chain — a more entrenched binding. The truth knows no obstacle, not even one we believe is intractable.
A word that stands out on this card is “rebellion”. This hints at the nature of the power that the Princess of Swords wields. Her ability to see something from all angles (denoted by the eyes around her headdress) also enables her to call bullshit when she encounters something of questionable integrity. It also shows us the nature of who she is in her shadow aspect. When she is out of alignment, she becomes the rebel without a cause — an indiscriminating destructrix who dismantles for the sake of seeing it fall to ruin.