Ace of Swords in 6 decks
The same card as 6 decks draw it, five and a half centuries apart. What stays the same is the card’s core; what changes is where a reading can find something new. The meanings are written for the Rider–Waite–Smith picture; the descriptions here are of each deck’s own. Not in Oswald Wirth, which has no Ace of Swords card.
Side by side
Choose any two decks and read the pictures against each other.
Pamela Colman Smith, 1909
A hand emerges from a cloud gripping an upright sword, its point passing through a golden crown hung with a palm branch and an olive branch. Six small flames or drops hang in the air around the blade. Below lie jagged grey mountains with no sign of life.
Lequart, Paris, 19th century
A hand from a green scalloped cloud at the left grips an upright blue sword whose point passes through a yellow crown set with flowers. Two green tassels with red tips hang inside the crown, and leafy branches drop from it on both sides. Yellow and white flame-shaped drops fall around the blade. No title or number.
Rider–Waite–Smith
Pamela Colman Smith, 1909
A hand emerges from a cloud gripping an upright sword, its point passing through a golden crown hung with a palm branch and an olive branch. Six small flames or drops hang in the air around the blade. Below lie jagged grey mountains with no sign of life.
Tarot de Marseille
Lequart, Paris, 19th century
A hand from a green scalloped cloud at the left grips an upright blue sword whose point passes through a yellow crown set with flowers. Two green tassels with red tips hang inside the crown, and leafy branches drop from it on both sides. Yellow and white flame-shaped drops fall around the blade. No title or number.
Tarot de Viéville
Jacques Viéville, c. 1650
A hand from a grey cloud at the lower right grips an upright sword. The blade passes through a large yellow crown hung with ribbons, palm and laurel branches drape on either side, and red and white drops fall around it.
Visconti-Sforza
Bonifacio Bembo, c. 1450
A single upright sword with a gold hilt and cross-guard and a blue blade runs down the centre. A gold and white ribbon wraps round the blade, lettered 'abon droyt' in red with small flowers between. Green leaves and blue and red flowers fill the cream ground within a red border.
In the Visconti-Sforza deck the number cards show only their suit symbols, and the trumps are unnamed and unnumbered.
Sola Busca
c. 1491
Two men stand close together, one in red with an arm thrown over the other's helmeted head, the second in blue holding a sword whose long red blade rises straight up between them. A grey and red shield stands at the right. The letters M and S flank them and a small 1 is at the left.
Soimoi
Mike Koz, 2025
A single upright sword with a straight blade, gold guard and diamond-wrapped blue hilt stands point upward, its pommel resting on reddish earth. A gold ribbon twists around the blade and pale wind currents spiral around it. Orange maple leaves blow across a teal sky above blue mountain ridges; no hand holds the sword.