Five of Swords
Secret whisperHe gathers the blades, but the victory is hollow wind.
Upright meaning
Upright keywordsconflict, defeat, winning at all costs, tension
A conflict in which winning costs too much. Choose your battles and ask what is really being gained.
Reversed meaning
Reversed keywordsreconciliation, making amends, old resentment, moving on
A chance to make amends and let old resentment go. Pride is cheaper to lose than the relationship.
About the suit of Swords
Swords belong to Air: thought, truth, words, decisions and conflict. They cut both ways — bringing clarity, and the pain that clarity can cost.
Reading the Fives of the tarot
Fives break the calm: conflict, loss or change that unsettles what the four built.
In Waite’s own words (1910)
From A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, public domain. Original English text.
Divinatory meaning: Degradation, destruction, revocation, infamy, dishonour, loss, with the variants and analogues of these.
Reversed: The same; burial and obsequies.
The picture
A disdainful man looks after two retreating and dejected figures. Their swords lie upon the ground. He carries two others on his left shoulder, and a third sword is in his right hand, point to earth. He is the master in possession of the field.
