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Five of Swords

Air · Swords
The Five of Swords card from the Rider-Waite-Smith tarot

On the card

A figure gathers swords with a wry look while two others walk away toward a choppy shore.

Upright

  • Hollow victory
  • Conflict
  • Cost

Somebody won and the field is empty. Traditionally the card of a victory that cost more than it returned — it asks what winning here would actually get you.

Reversed

  • Amends
  • Letting go
  • Lingering

Reversed, the ground is given back: amends, withdrawal, or a quarrel carried on long past the point.

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About this deck

The artwork is the Rider-Waite-Smith tarot, drawn by Pamela Colman Smith to Arthur Edward Waite's direction and first published in 1909. It has passed into the public domain, which is why it can be shown here in full — but it is her work, and the reason this deck became the one nearly every other deck answers to.

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