Beyond the Shuffle: Tarot, Life & Everything In Between

Journey of the Swords

• Adrienne Amari • Season 1 • Episode 16

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0:00 | 21:56

What tarot suit is your favourite? Which one do you like the least?

It's no secret that the Suit of Swords isn't often ranked high on the list of cards people want to get. In this episode, we take a journey from Ace through Ten, talking about each card.

I hope that you get a new look or understanding from this look at each of the cards. Because as I always say, what hurts us the most? It's the way we think, perceive and the words we use towards ourselves.

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Which of the Tarot suits is your favorite? Is it the wands, cups, swords, or pentacles? And which one do you like the least? Hi there, and welcome to Beyond the Shuffle, a podcast where we explore this wild ride of the human experience through the lens of Tarot. I'm Adrian Amari, your host, guide, and lover of the suit of swords. So settle in, open your mind, and let's go Beyond the Shuffle. This week on Beyond the Shuffle, we're going to dive into the Suit of Swords. This is notoriously the suit that is most disliked in the tarot, but it's honestly my personal favorite. It's the one I get and connect with the most. But I do get why a lot of people don't love it and would choose something like the cups or the pentacles or even the wands as their favorite instead. The suit of swords is often called the Suit of Sorrow. If we look at the cards, we have the Three of Swords with the Heart stabbed three times, the Five of Swords with three people fighting. The Seven of Swords with our sneaky McSneakerson sneaking away from camp. The eight where she is bound and blindfolded. The nine where they are waking up in fright, and the ten with ten swords stabbed right in their back. So yeah, I get it. It doesn't look like a great time, but the suit of swords is the suit of the mental realm. It's represented by the element of air, and it talks about the way we think, the way we perceive, the words that we use, the stories that we tell ourselves and others. And at the end of the day, what do we hurt ourselves with the most? It's not our emotions because thoughts create emotions, it's not our ambitions, it's not what we have or how we grow. It's what we think about these things and how we perceive these things, and what we tell ourselves about these things that actually hurt the most. And I think that's why a lot of people dislike and struggle with the suit of swords because how do you combat your own thoughts? And the mastery that comes through the suit of swords in our court cards is not the mastery so much of your mind because we can't control the thoughts we're going to have. If I said to you, what's your next thought? you would sit there thinking, This is weird, why am I listening to this? You have no idea what thought is going to come up next, but you do have control over how much power you give that thought, how much energy you give that thought, how much of the story you allow that thought to take over. But it's not all bad, right? Because within our thoughts are new ideas, honesty, expression, new ways to see the world, objectivity, decision making, and fresh perspectives. Now we talked about the Ace of Swords last week, but let's bring it back again because that's where our journey of the swords starts. So we have our ace, which is our beginning. It's an idea, a moment of clarity, a breakthrough, an aha. Like all aces, it's a call to adventure, a call to go on this journey and to see where it leads us. Now, of course, we can take that sword and we can journey forth. Or we can choose to remain behind, remain in the shadows and in the cloudiness of our own thoughts. The Ace of Swords is like an offering, like the sword stuck in the stone Excalibur that Arthur pulls out. Are you going to take the opportunity to pull out the sword, to make that choice, to wield it for something meaningful? Because by taking that sword up, we do have to take agency. We do have to realize that we are the ones in control, not of our thoughts, but of the power. And for the most part, we think, heck yes, let me grab that sword and move on. And then we come to a crossroads, an impasse, our first struggle on our journey of the swords. Now, when I see crossroads, I totally always think crossroads demon-like and supernatural. And if you think about it, they are very silver-tongued, so I feel like that goes in alignment with the suit of swords, but take that or leave that as you will. The two of swords is when we can't decide on the way forward. We are stuck in an decision. We're probably avoiding a decision. It's what are we not seeing or what are we not willing to see? There may be two opposite sides pulling at us, and we can't make sense of the right way to go. Maybe we need more information. Maybe we have to weigh the pros and cons or talk it out, but we do have to realize that avoiding, not making a choice, is still a choice in and of itself. So how can we take the blindfold off and see things for what they are and make that decision to move forward? Because we can't stay here forever. No matter how uncomfortable choosing actually is. Now we've gone through the struggle of the two and we meet the three, and things aren't really much better. It might feel like we're being put to the test. It's often a card of heartbreak, betrayal, disappointment, loss. But most of that is really a side effect. Thoughts create feelings, so the three of swords can kind of feel like a test on how do we move through these emotions by not trying to rationalize them? How do we get over our perception, our biases, our beliefs in a way that helps us to move through this kind of disappointment? How do we be okay not having the answer and not fully having a logical reason as to why? I always see the heart in the Three of Swords as the emotional part of it, and that's why it's like our logic brain, our rational thinking, is getting in our way of feeling. And no amount of trying to think your way in or out of it is going to fix it. So we need to change, change our perspective, change which thoughts we're giving power to, change how we see things, change the way we're approaching trying to figure out our feelings. Sometimes we just have to feel there's no figuring out. And you know what? That's pretty exhausting. So that leads us to the Four of Swords. The Four of Swords tells us, oh my goodness, take a break. We need to reorient ourselves. We need some rest, we need some relaxation, we need some recuperation. Because you can only fight a mental battle for so long. And I know we're all very much aware of that. But it can be hard when you're stuck spinning in your head to take that step back, to have clarity of mind to know what you can continue on with and what you need to distance yourself from. One detail I love about the Four of Swords is in the stained glass window above the tomb, and this is in the Ryder Waite Smith deck, you do see the words PAX in the window, P-A-X, which is Latin for peace. Because sometimes we do need that peace of getting out of our own head, of stopping the thinking, of stopping the spiral, of slowing down, of meditating, of rest now so that you can live to fight another day. And honestly, I don't normally say this with the Four of Swords, but as I'm talking about it, this just came to me. The Four of Swords could be a way of thinking about regulating your nervous system. Like if we're always in stress mode and on overdrive, our mind is not clear and we do need that timeout. So take that or leave that as you will, but I like it and I think it makes sense. And you know what? If we don't take that break, the five of swords just becomes so much more difficult. Now the five of swords is conflict and tension. It is arguments, disputes, people probably not fighting very nicely. Nasty things said, a clash of egos, somebody wanting at all costs to win and to be right. And the way we interpret this card can very much depend on who we are in it. Are we the one holding the swords, smug, ruthless, won the battle, but at what cost? Are we making other people feel powerless because of the way we're fighting? Is that our goal? Maybe we're the one by the river who's holding his head in defeat. I always see him as crying by the river, but what was he forced to confront or to face? Is he upset because he lost, or maybe he's upset because he had to confront something uncomfortable, a belief, a thought, an idea. Or maybe we're the one that's walking away, the one that decides the conflict and tension and drama isn't worth it. It's not worth our thoughts, it's not worth our energy or our fight. We realize that sometimes we're not going to prove the other party wrong. And maybe we have to be okay with that. I know a lot of people read the Five of Swords as external conflict intention, and 100% it can be, but a lot of the time it's the internal conflict as well. Have you ever tried to prove yourself right or wrong and gotten into that self-battle? And there's no good meaning to it. You're never trying to prove yourself right about a good thing. You're trying to prove yourself right about something crappy. So we either stay stuck in the cycle or we're forced to face the fact that the way we're thinking is fallible. So either way, it's pretty uncomfortable. But the good news is on the other side, we have the six of swords. Because after we go through that conflict and tension, something has to give. We can't stay in that state forever. So the six is our phase of transition. It's when we move into a new mental, hopefully a better mental state. It's a card that encourages acceptance because when we accept the way we're thinking, when we accept the way somebody else is perceiving a situation, when we see what we have control over and what we don't, we can lighten our load. The six tells us that we don't have to carry it all with us, all those thoughts, beliefs, that baggage from our past. It doesn't have to come along. We can travel lighter and more freely. So we have to release and we have to let go so that our boat can sail. And my favorite version of the Six of Swords actually comes from shockingly enough, the Prismavisions Tarot. In the Prismavisions Tarot, you see a chasm in the forest. And what is connecting the two pieces of land is a bridge of swords, and floating over that bridge are two butterflies. Because butterflies are a symbol of the suit of swords, we'll see it in the court cards. Butterflies are change and transformation and a transition and that reminder that you have to go through the goo to get to the other side. But they are also so light and so beautifully free floating over that bridge. So the six of swords is the encouragement to free ourselves from those thoughts that we've had in the past that have dragged us back and has dragged us down. And that by embracing a new way of thinking, by transitioning into this new mental state, we too can become lighter and freer. So after the six, we're feeling pretty good. But then we hit the seven, and now we're into a new wave of struggle. Now with the seven, we already have faced our fair shares of ups and downs, so we do have experience. But the seven of swords is sneaky. I always call him sneaky mick-sneakerson. He is a trickster, and that can come from outside, so somebody deceiving us, or it can be internal as well, our inner trickster getting the better of us. Maybe we take a shortcut, or we make sure that we're not the ones thrown under the bus. Maybe we deceive others to get what we want. Maybe we tell partial stories or half truths, and maybe we even do that just to ourselves. Now I don't see the seven as all bad. I do see it as being flexible, as being strategic, resourceful in your way of thinking, being one step ahead of the game. Because if you don't look out for yourself, who's going to? But we have to ask ourselves how honest we're being about it all. Are we tricking ourselves into self-sabotage? Are we using flexibility and strategy as a way out of something to not deal with something? At the end of the day, what are we really getting away with here? Because a lot of the time when we lean into the sneaky part of the Seven of Swords, it leads directly into that wonderful Eight of Swords. And I can say with a lot of confidence, this is a card that comes up all the time. And it's not always as a direct result from the Seven of Swords. But as we all know, humans are great storytellers. We tell ourselves all kinds of stories day in and day out with our perceptions, our thoughts, the things we say, the narration that goes inside in our head. But how many of those stories actually keep us stuck? Because if we look at the Eight of Swords, the swords are all pointing down in the ground. And usually when swords are pointing down, it's something internal. So while she may not have gotten stuck there alone, because as we know, the things that people say around us feed into our thoughts and beliefs about ourselves and about our lives, but she can free herself because really nothing is directly threatening her. She just has the perception that there is something there. So when we take off the blindfold and we see things with clarity, we release ourselves from that trap. And let's be real, the only person that can do that for us is us ourselves. And it's so funny that I say this because I was literally talking about a perfect example of this with a friend the other day. But you know how when somebody says something not nice to you or puts down what you're doing or whatever the situation is, you buy into that thought and belief far more than you should. You fret and waste time wondering if their dumb opinion is correct and the right way to think or to see something, even though you know it's not. And it's so easy to spiral when we have that negative opinion or belief shared with us. But what happens when somebody says something good or positive? They say you're doing great or your idea is brilliant. Do you spend time celebrating that and thinking, yes, I'm on track? Not if the negative one is hanging out there. If both the positive and the negative thing were said to you on the same day, roughly around the same time, which one are you going to hold on to? Without trying, it would probably be the negative one. Because now we have a problem to fix. We have something to solve. And I'm not saying that's the healthy way to go, but I think it's the way that many do go by default. We have to work harder to really lean into and accept and appreciate and enjoy the good one, the good things that are said. So we can see how easy it is to be trapped and stuck and a victim of our own thoughts, beliefs, and stories, even if we weren't the ones that put them there in the first place. We went along with them, we gave power to them, we in a way agreed with them. When we could have chosen, and when we don't choose freedom, we move into the Nine of Swords. The Nine is often called the Nightmare Card or the Insomnia card. It's those thoughts that keep us awake at night that we spiral downwards into. We kind of start to lose our grip on reality because we can't and won't think clearly. We all know that our own thoughts can eat us alive if we let them. And that's what's happening in the Nine of Swords. Maybe it's our ego desperately trying to protect us. It's a worry, an anxiety, a fear that swells up that we just can't push down. We feel stuck and disoriented, and we really need to get a grip on things. And you know, because I'm sure you've done this before as well, where when you're not sleeping, because you're so stuck in that pit of worry, your whole body starts to slow down. You don't make rational choices. Shadows become monsters. An innocent comment or a word of encouragement can turn into a burn or a bout of paranoia. And the more we give energy into it, the more it continues to circle around and around and around in our body. And even though this was created in the mind, created in our psyche, it starts to wreak havoc on our physical body as well. So we can succumb to it, we can let it devour us whole, or we can push back. We can choose to see things for what they are, we can accept the thoughts that we're having, but allow them to pass by like cars on the street. We can journal to get it out, we can talk to someone, you can talk into a voice memo and delete it so that you never have to cringily listen to it again. You can go out into the parking lot and scream. But it all starts with some representation of getting that energy out of your body and not allowing it to spiral around and around. And no, this isn't going to make it go away, but it can at least set you back into a place where you can work on it and work through it. Because guess what? If we decide to repress it and ignore it and pretend it's not affecting us, what does that eventually lead to? The Ten of Swords. And it's not a happy ending. They have ten swords stabbed in their back, they're pinned to the ground. It feels like failure, rock bottom, despair, hopelessness. Our thoughts and mind are muddied. We've lost the battle to our ego, and it feels like there's nowhere we can go from here. We've hit a wall. And we kind of sit and stew in this ten of swords until we bring our awareness into the situation, until we see what has happened. And the good news with the Ten of Swords is realistically, there's nowhere else to go except up. We've finished the cycle, we get to start again. But we do have to sit in that energy. We have to mourn and grieve the loss. We have to be aware of the journey we've been on and how we got there and the thoughts that led us to that situation so that we don't give power to them again. Because if we don't learn that lesson from the Ten of Swords, well, we're going back through that gauntlet. And we don't need to do that. Because so much of the time, what makes us feel like failure, what makes us feel like we've hit rock bottom is the way we perceive and think about that situation. And that might not make it easier, but it does give us power to change, to be more honest with ourselves, to choose our words more carefully, to take the next step forward with that clarity, that aha moment, and that breakthrough. Now that is our ace to ten of the Suit of Swords. And I was going to go into the court cards, but I think doing that would be better for another episode where we talk about the different ranks of the minor arcana. So for the end of this episode, I'm going to leave you with a quest. I want you to bring extra awareness to your thoughts this week. Especially when you feel yourself stuck and spiraling. Write it down, write a story about it, put it in the notes app on your phone, but put it somewhere. And at the end of the week, I want you to look at what you've written down, what you've made note of. What are repeating thoughts and patterns? What are repeating perceptions about things? How are they helpful and how are they harmful? Which ones are actually true? And if you do this and would like to share, I would love to hear about it. So make sure you come and tell me about it on Instagram at Beyond the Shuffle Podcast or Adrian Amari Tarot. Or if you're watching on YouTube, drop a comment below. And remember, a new episode of Beyond the Shuffle is released every single Wednesday at 8 a.m. Eastern. And if you enjoyed this episode and are enjoying the show, make sure you give me a like and a follow wherever you love to listen to podcasts. So remember, you can't control your thoughts, but you can control which thoughts you're giving power to. So rewrite your story in a way that feels good. And I'll see you next time on Beyond the Shuffle.