This card represents fueling relationships or ego in a negative way. The difficult message in Five Swords highlights the negative side of freedom in diversity. In my opinion, it would be great to live in a world where everyone is valued for who they are instead of who we need them to be in order for us to feel better about ourselves.
Five Swords is the card of a bully and/or insecure individual who can’t see the spoil in their own actions. Regardless of the facts this card indicates adversity through engaging in combative response and/or aggressive advancement directed towards others who do not share the same world view.
As I may have stated before in another post, the number 5 represents breaking out. The sword suite deals with issues surrounding communication and intellectual pursuits. In this card the two ideals clash and someone ends up getting hurt, often with little chance of recourse.
From the vantage point of western magic, Five Swords represent “defeat”. That new world view epitomizes problems arising from socializing over the internet. The World Wide Web is a platform for anyone who cares to step on it. Its appearance has done a lot of good in the arenas of mass communication and expression, but on the flip side it has also bred social ills such as plagiarism and paranoia. This contradiction in itself renders forward advancement as null.
Sharing from my own cup, I have strong dislikes. The feelings that these dislikes inspire are so strong that I choose to spend a large portion of my time in solitude. The hard edge within my sensitive psyche won’t tolerate anything less since I do not have any desire to challenge, dominate, or devalue others.
My own personal imprint of this card carries a life lesson: No matter how sound we believe our prejudices and dislikes to be, we CANNOT enforce our own personal codes of conduct and ideals on others.
Live and let live,
Mrs. Gray Divine
*Five Swords card created by Sandra Tabatha Cicero for Golden Dawn Magical Tarot.