Ace of Swords
The ace of swords in the tarot's Minor Arcana: a hand from a cloud grasping a sword, its point encircled by a crown. A. E. Waite read it as triumph, conquest and great force.
Meaning
Waite describes the card: "A hand issues from a cloud, grasping as word, the point of which is encircled by a crown."
What does the Ace of Swords mean?
Waite's meanings are "triumph, the excessive degree in everything, conquest, triumph of force. It is acard of great force"; reversed, "the same, but the results are disastrous; another account says—conception, childbirth, augmentation, multiplicity". His list of additional meanings adds "great prosperity or great misery", and reversed, "marriage broken off, for a woman, through her own imprudence".
In older decks
In Italian packs the suit is spade, swords: the earliest suit marks, the British Museum's catalogue of 1876 records, were coppe, danari, bastoni and spade, "cups, money, clubs, and swords". Papus reads it as "commencement of enmity".
See also
The Fool, The Magician, The High Priestess, The Empress, The Emperor, The Hierophant.
Sources
- The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, by A. E. Waite, William Rider & Son, London, 1910 (the sacred-texts.com transcription, on the Internet Archive), The Lesser Arcana; Some Additional Meanings of the Lesser Arcana
- The Tarot of the Bohemians, by Papus, Chapman & Hall, London, 1896, translated by A. P. Morton (scan on the Internet Archive), The Divining Tarot, second lesson: the minor arcana
- A Descriptive Catalogue of Playing and Other Cards in the British Museum, by W. H. Willshire, Trustees of the British Museum, London, 1876 (scan on the Internet Archive), General history: the marks of the suits
Last reviewed September 28, 2026 by Rory Hansen. How we research