Card Meaning: Ace Of Swords
General
The sword as a weapon doesn't have a positive or a negative
context. The context is given by the owner and his attitude. The Ace in all
suits symbolizes the initial impulse, the essence of its element, so does the
Ace of Swords as a representative of the air element bring the initial
mental impulse for a positive or a negative. If wielded with the positive and
spiritual tendentions it can crash the illusion and bring the change that we
need, otherwise it can bring misuse of power, conflict and illness. Around the
sword we see the Hebrew letter Yod, the first letter of the name of the
God symbolizing the divine spark, further emphasizing the fact that without
responsbility swords are dangerous weapons. One way or the other, this card
surely brings the beginning of something new.
Reading
Positive: beginning of victory,
change for a positive, new beginnings, power, rebirth, clarity of thought, right
decision, see through deception.
Negative: delusions, violence, tyranny, embarrassment, misuse of power.
A hand issues from a cloud, grasping a sword, the point of which is encircled
by a crown. Divinatory Meanings: Triumph, the excessive degree in
everything, conquest, triumph of force. It is a card of great force, in love as
well as in hatred. The crown may carry a much higher significance than comes
usually within the sphere of fortune-telling. Reversed: The same, but the
results are disastrous; another account says--conception, childbirth,
augmentation, multiplicity.
— The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, by A.E. Waite