Swords · Minor Arcana
A disdainful man looks after two retreating and dejected figures.
A figure gathers fallen swords under a ragged sky; others walk away, heads bowed. Even the winner of this fight feels the cost of it. Some battles are won by the person who refuses to fight.
Element
Air
Numerology
5— conflict, challenge, disruption, freedom
What the card says to you is truer than what anyone else says it means.
Cards often seen near this one
Five of Swords by life area
A disdainful man looks after two retreating and dejected figures. Their swords lie upon the ground. He carries two others on his left shoulder, and a third sword is in his right hand, point to earth. He is the master in possession of the field.
Source: “The Pictorial Key to the Tarot” by A.E. Waite (1910). Public domain.
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