Page, Knight, Queen and King of Swords - Tarot Card Interpretation by A. E. Waite
Page of Swords
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. He is alert and lithe, looking this way and that, as if an expected enemy might appear at any moment.
Divinatory Meaning: 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.
Knight of Swords
He is riding in full course, as if scattering his enemies. In the design he is really a prototypical hero of romantic chivalry. He might almost be Galahad, whose sword is swift and sure because he is clean of heart.
Divinatory Meaning: Skill, bravery, capacity, defence, address, enmity, wrath, war, destruction, opposition, resistance, ruin. There is therefore a sense in which the card signifies death, but it carries this meaning only in its proximity to other cards of fatality.
Reversed: Imprudence, incapacity, extravagance.
Queen of Swords
Her right hand raises the weapon vertically and the hilt rests on an arm of her royal chair the left hand is extended, the arm raised her countenance is severe but chastened; it suggests familiarity with sorrow. It does not represent mercy, and, her sword notwithstanding, she is scarcely a symbol of power.
Divinatory Meaning: Widowhood, female sadness and embarrassment, absence, sterility, mourning, privation, separation.
Reversed: Malice, bigotry, artifice, prudery, bale, deceit.
King of Swords
He sits in judgment, holding the unsheathed sign of his suit. He recalls, of course, the conventional Symbol of justice in the Trumps Major, and he may represent this virtue, but he is rather the power of life and death, in virtue of his office.
Divinatory Meaning: Whatsoever arises out of the idea of judgment and all its connexions-power, command, authority, militant intelligence, law, offices of the crown, and so forth.
Reversed: Cruelty, perversity, barbarity, perfidy, evil intention.
Tarot Card Intertpretations by A. E. Waite
Cards of The Tarot Major Arcana
The Fool The Magician The High Priestess The Empress The Emperor The Hierophant The Lovers The Chariot Strength The Hermit Wheel of Fortune Justice The Hanged Man Death Temperance The Devil The Tower The Star The Moon The Sun Judgment The World
Cards of The Tarot Wands
Ace, Two, Three, Four, and Five of Wands Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, and Ten of Wands Page, Knight, Queen, and King of Wands
Cards of The Tarot Cups
Ace, Two, Three, Four, and Five of Cups Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, and Ten of Cups Page, Knight, Queen, and King of Cups
Cards of The Tarot Swords
Ace, Two, Three, Four, and Five of Swords Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, and Ten of Swords Page, Knight, Queen, and King of Swords
Cards of The Tarot Pentacles (Disks)
Ace, Two, Three, Four, and Five of Pentacles Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, and Ten of Pentacles Page, Knight, Queen, and King of Pentacles