Pamela Colman Smith · RWS deck
The Minor Arcana
Five of Swords
Geburah in Yetzirah
- Suit
- swords
- Rank
- Five
- World
- Yetzirah
- Station
- Geburah
- Verb
- I connect
Geburah, the cut and the boundary
Geburah is severity: the faculty that cuts, bounds and defends. Every Five in the deck shows trouble, and the fit between image and station is the cleanest of any rank.
Upright
Flowing. Words as cuts: a conflict won, or a boundary drawn by force, at a cost to the connection. In the world of mental formation, severity lives in speech, and the card asks what the winning has taken from the relationship it was won in.
Misdirected. Winning the argument and losing the person, or boundary as aggression.
Reversed
Blocked. The boundary is not drawn and the conflict is not faced.
Flooded. Boundaries drawn by force everywhere, fights multiplying.
The image
A man with a faint smirk gathers three swords, with two more lying at his feet. Two figures walk away along the shore, shoulders down, under a stormy sky. He has won the field, and the picture leaves the cost to the people leaving it.
Learn how to read Five of Swords in a spread
This page shows you what Five of Swords means. Knowing how to read it — how it shifts next to the other cards, what the reversal is really telling you, and how to turn a spread into a clear answer — is what the RWS Decoded course and book teach, card by card.
