positive sword meanings

Of course, here is where I start using bad language (but only under my breath, so you can unplug your ears).

This is where the Rider-Waite interpretations and PICTURES have damaged so much the whole suit of Swords. By making out that Swords are negative. It drives me mad. They have distorted Tarot.

There are four elements in Tarot. None are only negative or positive. It all depends on the circumstances one finds oneself in. There are always two sides to a coin - or else we're in fantasy-land.

Swords relate to Spirit. To the Intellect. To Air (well, some people relate them to Fire, but I don't). Air is what we need to breath. It is LIFE ITSELF. Without air we die.

And that is negative????

Swords in Tarot also relate to thought. Is the thought process negative? Communication. Is communication negative? Swords provide inspiration. One needs then to use another element to get these ideas onto a more practical level, but they all start in the mental, i.e. in the Swords element.

Without Swords (Air), there would be no ideas, no progression, no evolution. No-one would be curious about anything. Nothing would be invented. There would be no culture, no nothing.

Forget the negative Swords. They make no sense at all.

And buy yourself a Marseille deck which doesn't have those ridiculous pictures of gloom and despair on the Swords. Those pictures are biased..... More like an oracle than Tarot, they are.

Images of Swords and other Decks

I agree that if you observe orther decks, you'll get an alternative interpretation of a card or suit. This may help expand the meaning for you.

Swords

I take the swords as a symbol. That symbol would be, of course, Air. When I see the swords come up I always think that this means the decision that needs to be made, really needs to be thought about without emotion, just intellect.
We need air to breath, that's it.... no reason to cry or worry about it, it's just fact - intellect.
So in any situation, I don't see it as a bad. It just tells me to make sure to use wisdom, not your heart, not your feelings, not vengence.
The thing I watch for is how many swords, that usually says how severe the situation is.
So, actually swords are good for me. I can see them clearly, because , again, nothing is involved except wisdom.

I guess as long as the Cups stay away from the Swords, where emotion would cloud pure intellect...

Elle

Ambrosia said:

I feel that all the suits in the tarot deck have both negative and positive sides to them, but when studying card meanings i am disappointed to find that most books etc give swords a negative connotation. maybe it is because I am an air sign (aquarian), but id be most appreciative if anyone can give me some of their positive ways of looking at swords and/or positve meanings. when i look at fire people i can see how they display wand like characteristics, and same with water (cups), and earth (pentacles) but when i read about swords (air) i feel like it doesnt really go with the whole air nature. yes im a thinker, yes im intellectual, but im also very bubbly natured, emotional, intuitive and spiritual. iguess what im saying is why do the air cards get made out to be all about conflict and strife? and the way most books are written it implies the airsigns are not emotional, psychic, intuitive, creative,spiritual or practical, but i am all of the above. ive got a good mind to consider all of the suits as having aspects of all the elements. any insights on this dilemna?

Click to expand...

i.e. you do not equate just to your sun-sign, Ambrosia, but presumably have planets in other signs as well? ;-))

This is a great thread to bring back into the light... which is a pretty swordish positive aspect manifesting itself in simply by the fact that swords are communication and to me the electricity of the suits.

Information, communication, looking at details and anaylysing, scrutinizing in a group of real people, using the word & internet/electro/over the wires and airways to touch each others minds. Spark of thoughts, insights and considerations, being able to file away information and bring it back faster than we could ever thumb through books and index cards, using our judgement and reason to make of it all what we will.

The lessons we learn most in life are most often the hardest, bringing disappointment either from what we have no control over or from our expectations based on our perceptions.

I read once... disallusionment is becoming free of illusion and dellusions... seeing the reality of what is.
Two of swords is the realization
This to me, is what 3 Swords is putting those realizations into an action or mind set, accepting what is and dealing with it in a positive manner, to promote the healing meditation and resolution in 4 Swords.

5 Swords is the realization of responsibility and to remove and conquer those things that can harm us or others or to see where we may have gone wrong. It is a lesson on how to win and lose gracefully or that willpower can conquer all.

6 Swords is changing attitudes and behaviors, a calming of the mind to think rationally (2 swords is about this too, but is still making assessments) but 6 Swords is making the move, that crossing/transition from the progression of acceptance, stepping back, realization, taking responsibility and a conscious choice to move towards a more peaceful attitude.

7 Swords... using thoughtfulness and knowledge, with the calm to be diplomatic, a ounce of prevention...
to defuse or deflect destructive attitudes, actions, habits, prevent things from going from bad to worse.

8 Swords is self blinding... again... perhaps not learning the lessons of the previous cards or skipping everything between the 2 and 8. It could also be turning a blind eye and using intuition and heart, the inner vision to get through the maze of swords without harm. Trusting intuition over logical thought or even those illogical destructive ones that trap us and bring us down... inner faith to find ones way or discover what ways we bind and blind ourselves. Not allowing self defeatist attitudes to blind you.

9 Swords... realizing the power of thought and communications, facing your fears and nightmares, rather than allowing them to overpower you. Sleeping on it... to wake with a clearer head, fresh perspectives and seeing things for what they truly are.

10 Swords could be that final realization that negativity is what finally brings everything down, a bit melodramatic, a bit of over kill, but really truly pinning down those things that cause you pain and grief as well as recognising over reactions, taking some things too far. That your inner foe is dead and gone perhaps... to be left behind for something better and brighter, a freshness.

The Page/Princess is the message that all this stuff is really behind you and you are free to become anything... the freshness of spring or wiping the slate clean if it's the first snow's of winter. Using your knowledge and what you have gained without being jaded or cynical... but with clarity.

Knight of Wands is confronting those things that self destructive and keep popping back up... have courage to go where you've never gone before... Having faith and confidence in your abilities to meet anything head on.

The Queen is finding deep understanding from experience, the wisdom to seperate emotions, desires and physical reactions from the equation... using compassion and empathy along with logical reasoning to see both sides of an issue, much like justice, except she looks deeply rather than blindly. Seeing into the heart of matters with dignity, calmness and authority and make something beautiful from it.

The King... is the judge, acting on what he discerns to be right action, much like the Emperor... protecting his rights, in charge of his decisions and actions, an independant thinker and using authority to maintain order in a way that is fair and just.

That is only a tiny little bit of positive aspects for Swords.

I have often wondered about the negative approach of Swords myself. Like many of you, I also believe that there are positive and negative qualities to all of the elements, and to all of the suits as well. But too much of one element is never good, it's all about temperance, harmony, combining the elements together.

Here are a few positives that I associate with Air. (Most have been mentioned already...)

The power of the mind, ideas, knowledge, the ability to distinguish, resolutions, justice, truth, clearity, communication, diplomacy, flexibility, connecting things, interest, freedom, independence.

Swords aren't negative - it is a suit difficult to deal with, because it's very related to the mind, to the personal power, to the personal decisions. More than any other, this is the suit of the self.

Negative is a point of view. All images of the swords can be seen in two ways. The 10, which is THE bad card...but it has a sun rising on the background. It has the chance of starting again. Is it bad? Depends on what you see - it's bad because you have fallen, or good because you have the chance to stand up again. To 'kill and bury' those things that held you back in the past and find a new way.

Again, is this bad?

The problem is that people think like this: pain = bad. No and no. Pain is a part of life, pain is a wonderful teacher. Pain makes you take off your pink glasses and see what *really* surrounds you.
All suits show pain. The major arcana shows pain. But why suddenly just the swords carry the burden?

Because the pain is worst when is deals with YOU, when it hurts your pride, it challenges your mind. When it makes you *think* about what you have done, about what you have to do. Swords is the thinking suit.

The mind is the big thing. That's why the pain seems worst. That's why swords carry the burden.

There is no need to start another 'lets find the positive meaning for swords' thread: this way you are assuming they are all negative. The 'positive side', if you wish to call that, is there already it doesn't need to be 'found' or 'created'.
Some cards really hurt more, but who said they aren't needed? Who said their consequences are all bad? They are just symbols of disgrace?
That's to ignore the deep symbolism each card carries.

~~~Yuko

Amy Samuel in her companion volume to the Hudes Deck gives much more positive interpretations of Swords. She also gives affirmations which help one see the potential benefits of painful experiences, and what can be learned through these.

The Hudes deck is haunting and the Samuel companion to it quite beautiful, particularly if one is interested in physical and/or spiritual healing.

Moongold

Miss Yuko, thank you for your post - it really made me think! (I love when that happens )

You're right of course. The mind (represented by air and by swords) is the center of the self, the ego. I don't mean ego in a bad way, just as the conscious part of the personality. The mind's ability to distinguish stands at the very basis of the ego; it distinguishes 'self' from the rest of the world. In the same way, it also distinguishes 'good' from 'bad'. So in a way... judging pain and Swords as negative is sort of an affirmation of this ability.

A lot of cards in this suit show some kind of resistance... Overcoming this resistance is what makes us grow as a person. (One might also see it as 'challenges'.) It makes me think of a quote I read somewhere: "To fly, we have to have resistance". Appropriate, don't you think?

And here's another quote: "All that we are is the result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we think, we become." - Buddha