Page of Swords

O these swords… the gift of the swords are that they are intellectual, analytical and forthright. But they learn through pain.

So the page of swords, standing with some energy and gusto, has to learn his lessons the hard way. He doesn’t want to follow the map, he wants to find out for himself. When you draw this card, life is sending you some challenges. This is an opportunity for self knowledge and growth.

I love the Inner child version, which shows Pinocchio, looking at himself in the mirror. It’s time to ask, who is pulling my strings, and before I worry about lies I tell to others, let me worry about lies I tell to myself… This is a time to look at yourself in the mirror and acknowledge exactly what is going on.

The shadow side of the swords is when you refuse to learn, arrogantly asserting that you know it all. It about not being logical or forthright,  but stuck in adolescent certainty.

Two of Swords

Here sits a woman, eyes bound, holding 2 swords across her body. I often ask people who draw this card to cross their arms like she is doing, and see how tight they feel, how difficult it is to breathe. This is a woman whose defenses have become part of her problem, and are tragically making her more vulnerable than she would be if she just put the swords down.

The two of swords symbolizes a person or situation where truth or reality is denied, where people are kept at arm’s length. Instead we hide our distress and become defensive. The woman in this image is avoiding the truth, refusing to look at facts and pretending everything's fine. She feels afraid to act and she’s stuck.

But I always assure the person drawing the card that the situation is not irrevocable. If the woman is willing to lower her defenses a little, put the swords down, take the blindfold off, she may well find that there is no imminent attack, instead she’s so used to protecting herself that she was pushed all her support away, but now that the swords are down she can welcome them back.

The Inner child cards have more movement, at least there are 2 people engaging here, but they are both protecting tiny piles of rock from which no life can grow. So sometimes the battle is not worth winning, and we have to look at the situation closely to see what it is we are protecting and if it worth our time and energy.

The Ace of Swords

Like a breath of fresh air, the Ace of swords cuts through the mists of confusion. It gives you clarity, focus, vision.

I think the Ace cuts to the heart of the matter. I often see it when relationships are complicated; the Ace of swords tells you when you need to cut yourself free. Of course if the Ace is cutting through illusions/delusions, some of those illusions may belong to us! As I always say with swords, swords learn through pain, so if you are the one having trouble letting go of the relationship, the Ace cuts through your false dreams - which may hurt in the short term, but will heal in the long term…

I like the Inner Child version, of Excalibur being pulled free, giving you the strength, luck and magic to do what needs to be done.

And now for the swords...

We leave the water based cups and now move on to the swords, cutting through the air. When I think of swords, I think of cutting through complications, sharp edged and smart. The swords deal with the mind, both rational and irrational. The swords are intellectual and want to learn but emotionally they often learn through pain. I associate Swords with strength, defenses, conflict, anxiety, and ambition, but above all, swords seek the truth, and how valuable that makes them!

The many faces of the suits

The playing cards we are so familiar with have a clear relationship with the Minor Arcana. As the picture above shows, modern cards have a relationship with the Tarot suits. The suits are divided into 4 groups - wands, cups, swords and pentacles, though there is certainly plenty of variation on those themes. In the Inner Child Cards that I also use, the 4 suites are wands, hearts, swords and crystals.

The four major groups hold 4 distinct energies.


Wands are fire, energy, ambition, initiative, creativity, passion
(wands can also be represented by sticks, batons, staves, rods etc)


Cups are water, emotions, intuition, love, empathy, the Holy Grail
(cups can also be represented by hearts, harps, flowers, esp roses, chalices, etc)


Swords are air, intellectual, sharp, cutting through illusions, objectivity, Truth
(Swords somehow are the most common suit, rarely changing. I guess swords are such a definitive image!)


Pentacles are earth, work, coins/material possessions, security, comfort.
(pentacles can also be represented by coins, stars, crystals, discs, bells, etc)

Each suit goes from Ace to ten, and then has 4 court cards - the page, knight, queen and king. And of course, there are many variations on those themes as well (from princesses to mermaids…) Court Cards can also be referred to as sister, brother, mother, father – which can explain a lot!