Five of Swords: tarot card meaning

In A. E. Waite's Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910), the Five of Swords upright means: Degradation, destruction, revocation, infamy, dishonour, loss, with the variants and analogues of these. Reversed: The same; burial and obsequies.

The picture

“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.” A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, 1910

Upright

Degradation, destruction, revocation, infamy, dishonour, loss, with the variants and analogues of these.

Waite's additional meanings: An attack on the fortune of the Querent.

Reversed

The same; burial and obsequies.

Waite's additional meanings, reversed: A sign of sorrow and mourning.

In one line

A hollow win: dishonour and loss. (Esbat's own summary of Waite's meaning and picture.)

Where it sits in the deck

The Five of Swords is the fifth card of the suit of Swords, one of the 56 Minor Arcana. The other Fives: Five of Wands, Five of Cups, Five of Pentacles.

In Esbat

Esbat deals a card of the day, face down until you turn it, and holds all 78 cards in the 1910 pictures with Waite's meanings, upright and reversed. The Five of Swords can be shared as a picture. All 78 tarot card meanings.

Sources

Meanings and picture descriptions: A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (London: Rider, 1910), public domain, checked against the Wikisource transcription. Picture: Pamela Colman Smith, 1910, public domain. Like the app, this page records what the book says; it does not promise outcomes.

Last updated October 25, 2026.

Esbat: Tarot & Book of Shadows, on Google Play

A card of the day, face down until you turn it, and all 78 cards in the 1910 pictures with Waite's meanings, upright and reversed. For Android.

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