Page of Swords
The page of swords in the tarot's Minor Arcana: a young figure walking swiftly over rough ground, holding a sword upright. A. E. Waite read it as vigilance, secret service and spying.
Meaning
Waite describes the card: "A lithe, active figure holds a sword upright in both hands, while in the act of swift walking. He is passing over rugged land, and about his way the clouds are collocated wildly."
What does the Page of Swords mean?
Waite's meanings are "authority, overseeing, secret service, vigilance, spying, examination, and the qualities thereto belonging"; reversed, "more evil side of these qualities; what is unforeseen, unprepared state; sickness is also intimated". His list of additional meanings adds "an indiscreet person will pry into the Querent's secrets", and reversed, "astonishing news".
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, who calls it the Knave of Swords, reads it as "a child, an enemy; bad news; delay".
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