5 Epées (Swords) - how may it be read?

When looking at the number 5 I see it representing as some kind of struggle or disruption, a shake up. This card could be read as confusion or dithering over making a decision.

For me, I still have to decide which way up I consider the swords are when upright. In readings I've read it as upright whichever way up it lands and it seems to depend on the surrounding cards. I see it not so much as upright or reversed, but more as active when the central sword is pointing upwards, and inactive or peaceful/dormant when pointing down.

Also, I've read swords as relating to the fire element at times, so for me the element sometimes changed too. It could be read as struggling to take an action, or a chaotic and irrational state of mind.

Here's the Ottone version:

Like you, I also see a 'five' as some kind of disruption. And when linked with swords, I see it to be one that is mental or communicative.

When that blade hangs down, I see clouds of worry, confusion and dispair. When we were within the closed and safe walls of contentment in the four, it was only temporary. But here, those walls of mental security have crashed down. The central sword reminds me of how cars ramraid shops and crash into people's homes, sometimes. All that was settled, is no more.

It may be a thought that presents worry. It might be words that bring about unrest. It might be a letter requesting that you pay money, have to go somewhere or news that is upsetting and provokes you to fret.

When the sword points up though, I see this unrest beginning to move on towards the harmony of the 'six'. The crashed walls of the four are begnning to be rebuilt. You are paying off the loan somehow. Things are starting to move - the 'five' is active and not passive, so in a way, the movement, which was going to happen at some time, has begun. It might not have been pleasent but you have learnt from it - which you wouldn't have if you had just sat within the confines of your stable four walls.

LB

Hello LittleBuddha

I usually look at the card before and after the one in question so that I can see the progression or story. The four, as you say, is a steady and inactive number, and the six is harmonious as though the weight is off the mind, you know it's time to make a decision. In between those we have the number 5 which is where the shake up happens.

I can't be strict with how I see the direction of the sword pointing. I see ocassions when an upright sword could be celebratory as in a wedding, but other times when I see it drawn swiftly for action and perhaps conflict.

You have some great thoughts and examples for this card.

Thanks M.

I am not always that strict about the direction of sword. Sometimes, I just plain forget to even check. But there is something triumphant about it being upright, like in the ace, and if we think of the ace as a card that steps in and brings with it some kind of pure thought and clarity, then I suppose it would make sense for that same upright blade to suggest a move-on, possitively, from mental strife, doubt and confusion of some kind.

A downward pointing sword might, intuitively, represent someone that puts their head in the sand and will not accept change. Things move on. They have to. The only constant is change, so it either blows past and drags you with it or you stand up, sword in the air and make changes towards harmony that you would like. There is an element of the sixteenth trump in this one, I feel. Good can come from bad, if you accept it and learn from it. We often talk about hindsight. This might be a beginning of that. Beginning to look back and eventually looking back from the comfort of the six and saying 'I knew that was coming but I resisted it for so long ... but now all is sorted, I am glad that it happened ... I needed that'.

LB

Moonbow* said:

For me, I still have to decide which way up I consider the swords are when upright. In readings I've read it as upright whichever way up it lands and it seems to depend on the surrounding cards. I see it not so much as upright or reversed, but more as active when the central sword is pointing upwards, and inactive or peaceful/dormant when pointing down.

Click to expand...

I LOVE this Moonbow*. That makes perfect sense to me.

Very nice to see this series of threads revived - and for those posts!

I also tend to see, in readings, the five as often signaling some kind of inner tension that needs resolution, and likewise tend to not so much consider the 'uprightness' of the card, but rather its relative active-oriented (point up) or dormancy (excellent choice of word!) or latent energy (point down).

I personally also prefer, in terms of the suit, those early woodcuts that show the hilts of the curved swords - such as the Schaffhouse:



What is also fascinating in both (most) Marseille and Schaffhouse designs is that the blade of the straight sword is NOT shown where it 'ought' within the opening between the crossed curved blades.

Here is a small section of the card that may also indicate something specific within the context of a reading.

The four floral arrangements within the corners do, for me, two things: they on the one hand lend a stability within which the active instability of the sword may be unfurled or explored; and also call to mind the possible remnant of what may have been the ends of the sword guard when the central sword was depicted longer and the hilt over the crossings of the scimitars.