RWS Tarot 101 Five of Swords

Five of Swords
After reading the threads listed below, I am really feeling overwhelmed by how much I have to learn and almost embarrassed by my posts (But-I have to start somewhere). I am humbled by the knowledgeable people here. Guess I am in the right place to learn.

When I look into the Five of Swords I see three men. The one in the forefront holds/carries two swords in one arm, leans against a third sword with his other hand, and two other swords lay at his feet. He has a smirk on his face, looking quite pleased with himself. The man in the middle appears to be walking away with his back to us, and the third man is turned away, head slumped, body posture makes him appear he is sad or upset.

Why dose the first man hold all the swords? Was it a battle? He appears to be the victor; the other two men appear defeated. My first thought is of “It’s not whether you win or loose, it is how you played the game”. Were you fair, honest in your dealings? Or were you a cheat and rubbed it in their face? Will they come back at you later? For the losers, how did you take the loss? Did you walk away and learn from it? Or did you just cry and give up, not learning or growing at all. It’s how you deal with change, your intellectual decisions. Your life is not determined by a single battle, but how you handle the wins and losses. Those decisions will shape your future.

Direct: Knowing when to and when not to fight, conflict with others or with self, won the battle, but not the war, dealing with change, recognized imitations, choice.

Reversed: ignoring good advice, cowardly, remorse, reversed or ending or conflict.

Treads on the Five of Swords:
http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=96609 Discussion on Fives
http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=41624 Five of Swords
http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=69575 Five of Sword Defeat?
http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=92550&page=1&pp=10 Swords Overview

I like what you have written there, Sassy, admittedly it is not an easy card to get. All I have to contribute are a few examples, apart from the rather crude one that I have already mentioned in one of the links that you provided

The one where the conflict is with yourself, the example is the one that a counsellor has told me about, and others have sort of confirmed on, or expanded on, in some sense. So, it will be an agglomeration of all, in effect. Well, we all have two parts of our mind, in essence, the conscious and the subconscious, so in that sense, the subconscious is the one that tells you all the good things about you, like you are intelligent, loved, liked and beautiful, but then you have the conscious that tells you such things as you are ugly, stupid, hopeless, helpless, and such forth, the one that has the fears, doubts, insecurities. There are a lot of things that I have not done, but have wanted to do it, but have not done out of it fear, of, I know this sounds stupid, but to be laughed at. The thing is, well, it is an issue I have that stems from my childhood. So, anyway the counselor told me that every time I want to do something, and then the other part of me says don't do it, you won't be any good at it, you are going to fail, and whatever else, well, I am supposed to say "What is the worst thing that would possibly happen if I fail." And then someone else said to sit down and recognise the negative thoughts, and then to challenge those thoughts, sort of like saying "so what?" and then try to turn that negative thought into a positive one. That will have to do, I have totally lost track of what I am trying to say!

Then, there is another one, a place where I used to work, there was at least one person that was lazy, and so forth, but they tried to make them look good in the eyes of the supervisor, so to do that, she would be watching everyone, waiting for them to screw up, and then tell the supervisor. It was a hideous environment to work in! Not only did I have to deal with it directly, but indirectly, as it affected the work environment, and there was a lot of things said about this person, that person, and so forth. In the end I had to leave there, I had a nervous breakdown, I hated the people I worked with, I hated the environment, and push comes to shove, I hated the actual job itself!

I think they are good examples, I was going to give more, but I have forgotten them!