Nine 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 Nine of Swords card.
Side by side
Choose any two decks and read the pictures against each other.
Pamela Colman Smith, 1909
A figure sits up in bed in the dark with both hands over their face, while nine swords hang horizontally on the black wall behind them. The quilt is patterned with roses and the signs of the zodiac, and a carving on the bed shows one person striking another. Nothing in the room is actually attacking.
Lequart, Paris, 19th century
Eight curved grey blades form a quadruple oval with large blue woven crossings full of red diamonds. A straight blue sword with a red tip stands upright in the centre, its yellow hilt near the middle of the card. Red-brown flowers sit at the corners. Numeral VIIII at both sides.
Marseille number cards are read through their number and suit; the written meaning here gives the scene the Rider-Waite-Smith card adds.
Rider–Waite–Smith
Pamela Colman Smith, 1909
A figure sits up in bed in the dark with both hands over their face, while nine swords hang horizontally on the black wall behind them. The quilt is patterned with roses and the signs of the zodiac, and a carving on the bed shows one person striking another. Nothing in the room is actually attacking.
Tarot de Marseille
Lequart, Paris, 19th century
Eight curved grey blades form a quadruple oval with large blue woven crossings full of red diamonds. A straight blue sword with a red tip stands upright in the centre, its yellow hilt near the middle of the card. Red-brown flowers sit at the corners. Numeral VIIII at both sides.
Marseille number cards are read through their number and suit; the written meaning here gives the scene the Rider-Waite-Smith card adds.
Tarot de Viéville
Jacques Viéville, c. 1650
Eight curved blades form a broad oval interlaced at top and bottom, and a ninth straight sword with a red blade and yellow guard stands upright in the centre. Small flowers sit in the corners.
Viéville number cards show only their suit symbols; read them through number and suit, with the written meaning as a guide.
Visconti-Sforza
Bonifacio Bembo, c. 1450
Eight swords cross four by four with hilts arched at the top, and a ninth rises up the centre from a hilt at the bottom. Orange lozenges and green sprigs sit within the lattice. The blue on the blades is rubbed in places; flowers and vines edge the card.
In the Visconti-Sforza deck the number cards show only their suit symbols, and the trumps are unnamed and unnumbered.
Sola Busca
c. 1491
A naked man bends over a purple vessel holding a bundle of swords, gripping a laurel garland draped round its base, while another sword lies across it. A winged infant stands on the rim. The numeral 9 is at the right.
Soimoi
Mike Koz, 2025
A man in a red jacket sits hunched on a wooden bench, his face buried in both hands and his tattooed forearm showing. Eight swords hang in a row on the wooden wall behind him, and a ninth lies unsheathed on the floor at his bare feet. A white fox mask with red markings lies on the floor at left, and dark bamboo stands at right.