Queen 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 Queen of Swords card.
Side by side
Choose any two decks and read the pictures against each other.
Pamela Colman Smith, 1909
A queen sits in profile on a throne carved with a winged figure and butterflies, her sword held perfectly upright in one hand and the other hand raised, open, as if to say: speak. Clouds gather at the base of the picture but her head is in clear sky. A single bird flies above her.
Lequart, Paris, 19th century
A crowned queen with long fair hair sits on a red throne with yellow posts, holding an upright sword in one hand and resting the other on her middle. She wears a pale bodice, a green gown, a pink skirt falling in heavy folds and a red cloak. Titled REYNE D'ÉPÉE.
Rider–Waite–Smith
Pamela Colman Smith, 1909
A queen sits in profile on a throne carved with a winged figure and butterflies, her sword held perfectly upright in one hand and the other hand raised, open, as if to say: speak. Clouds gather at the base of the picture but her head is in clear sky. A single bird flies above her.
Tarot de Marseille
Lequart, Paris, 19th century
A crowned queen with long fair hair sits on a red throne with yellow posts, holding an upright sword in one hand and resting the other on her middle. She wears a pale bodice, a green gown, a pink skirt falling in heavy folds and a red cloak. Titled REYNE D'ÉPÉE.
Tarot de Viéville
Jacques Viéville, c. 1650
A crowned woman with long pink-tinted hair sits facing slightly right in a red gown and dark cloak. Her right hand rests in her lap and her left holds a tall sword upright. A few brown spots mark the scan at the upper left.
Visconti-Sforza
Bonifacio Bembo, c. 1450
A crowned fair-haired woman in profile sits facing right in a long white gown, wearing armoured gauntlets and plates on her arms. She rests a sword against her shoulder with her right hand and raises her left. The gold behind is tooled in diamonds; a pale floor and a patch of green show at the lower right.
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 crowned woman in a pink gown and blue drape sits holding a red sword upright in one hand and a slender rod in the other. A large green leaf curls over her head like a canopy. The name OLINPIA is written in two lines beside her and the numeral 13 is at the lower left.
Soimoi
Mike Koz, 2025
On a pale, paper-toned card, a woman with her hair pinned up sits on a stone seat in a dark blue kimono, holding an upright sword in her right hand while turquoise mist coils up from the blade. Her left hand rests in her lap. A red-crowned crane and a smaller bird stand beside her, with bamboo, pines and distant mountains behind and orange leaves falling.