The Open Athenaeum

✶ The Study Deck

Two of Swords

Swords, of the lesser arcana

Waite & Colman Smith, 1909 · described 1911

A hoodwinked female figure balances two swords upon her shoulders.

the plate, in waite's words · the painted card will hang here in time

In divination

Conformity and the equipoise which it suggests, courage, friendship, concord in a state of arms; another reading gives tenderness, affection, intimacy. The suggestion of harmony and other favourable readings must be considered in a qualified manner, as Swords generally are not symbolical of beneficent forces in human affairs.

Reversed: Imposture, falsehood, duplicity, disloyalty.

The library's note

A hoodwinked woman balances two swords across her shoulders, blind to the very equilibrium she keeps. Waite allows the design a gentler reading than most of the suit, "concord in a state of arms," "tenderness, affection, intimacy," but immediately qualifies it: swords generally carry no beneficent sense, so any harmony shown here has to be read "in a qualified manner." The suit's conflict, barely two cards in, already balances rather than resolves.

a young page · the keeper's voice pass on the note is still to come

Doors Onward

Sources & Further Reading

  1. Waite, A. E. (1911). The Pictorial Key to the Tarot. Card text quoted verbatim, his punctuation kept. (Public domain.)
  2. Card described at: http://sacred-texts.com/tarot/pkt/pktsw02.htm

Free, and kept that way by readers. If this page served you, keep a lamp lit.