54-Five of Swords – Reversed Golden Deck

Your Chosen Card – Five of Swords Reversed Golden Deck

When reversed, the Five of Swords suggests that you have been licking your wounds for too long. The time has come to confront your sense of defeat and humiliation and see if there is a way to effect reconciliation. Wallowing in self-pity only prolongs your hurt feelings and sense of inadequacy.

Keywords Reversed: Affront, rejection, hurtful humiliation, a painful parting of ways, hard feelings, wounded pride, meanness, slander, betrayal, loss, abandonment, dejection, defeat, anxiety, blame, feelings of inadequacy, Pyrrhic victory, gloating, poor sportsmanship, sorrow, mourning, licking your wounds, feeling slighted or abandoned, leaving without saying goodbye; all’s fair in love and war.

Timing: 0 Aquarius–10 Aquarius. Tropical, 20 January–29 January. Sidereal, 13 February–22 February.
Astrology: Lovely and affectionate Venus in the first decan of airy Aquarius, realm of the Waite Knight/Thoth Prince of Swords (Air of Air) and the Star (Aquarius). Venus is linked to the Empress.
Number Symbolism: 5 – instability, disruption, loss, crisis, tension, competition, conflict.

Mathers: Mourning, sadness, affliction, losses, trouble (whether reversed or not, it’s the same signification, ).

When Five of Swords is reversed you can pretty much take it that life is going well but that’s when life takes us by surprise.  If Five of Swords is unclear it may help to choose a card from the Major Arcana to provide more insight into what it is Five of Swords is trying to tell you.  If you had a particular issue in  mind, or want to seek clarification on something else, you can also choose again to get more guidance.

This chosen card is part of your reversed card reading for Five of Swords using cards from the Golden Tarot Deck. You will find many more tarot pages that will be of great help if you need tarot card meanings. Use the search at the bottom of the page. We have some amazing tarot books for you to browse. Please see below.


Here are some snippets from a few of my favorite books

Complete Book of Tarot
Book Details
Complete Book of Tarot: If you enjoy Carolyn Cushing’s Sacred Practices spread described earlier in this chapter, you can journal weekly about the three questions of this layout. Some people find that asking a specific question of the tarot helps them to focus on the particular images in the card and to write more meaningfully about their significance. Others prefer to meditate on a card and record their general insights and impressions. You will need to experiment to see which method works best for your learning style.

Tarot Books

Complete Book of Tarot: The bad vibrations myth: you must cleanse your cards of negative energies by smudging them (passing each card through the smoke of a burning plant such as white sage or lavender).

Complete Book of Tarot: Crowley believed that newcomers to the tarot could truly appreciate the cards only if they observed closely how the tarot behaves over a substantial period of time. In other words, an understanding of the tarot comes only through extensive experience with the cards, treating them as if they were sentient beings. How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, practice, practice!

  • Do get in touch if you looked for Five of Swords and we don’t have it listed. We would be more than happy to source the information for you. We hope you visit again for more online tarot information!

Tarot Triumphs: Since Tarot is a fluid, imaginative medium of divination, it is best used, in my view, to give readings for others. However, when you are first learning to work with the cards, you may need to use yourself for practice. In this case, I suggest picking a question where the issue is a minor one, a matter of harmless interest, or even about a situation completely outside your own affairs. ‘Why is she being so difficult at the moment?’ might pinpoint the passing trouble with a friend who isn’t her usual self. ‘What kind of holiday should I take?’ could give you some useful ideas for your next vacation. You could even have fun trying to figure out who will win the next election.