Five of Swords

Five swords of different shapes form an inverted pentagram; rose petals are scattered and the sky is troubled.

Geburah, Severity, in Yetzirah, the world of formation. Severity or Strength, the power that breaks what Chesed has built so that it can move: motion, disturbance, the pentagram. Geburah is Mars. The Fives are Geburah in the four worlds and are the hardest cards of each suit, because the settled four has been set in motion.

Geburah in the world of Air: the settled mind set in motion, and the motion is a rout. Venus in the first decan of Aquarius is too soft for the sign's cold air, and the weakness shows.

Venus in the first decan of Aquarius (0°–10°, about Jan 20–29). Venus is attraction, harmony, love, art and fertility. On the Tree it is Netzach, Victory; among the trumps it is the Empress, the door through which all forms are born.

Aquarius is fixed Air: the water-bearer who pours out the stars, the collective mind, the ideal. Saturn rules it traditionally (Uranus in modern practice). It is the kerubic sign of Air, and its trump is the Star. The trump of Aquarius is The Star.

This decan is ruled by the Prince of Swords, whose arc runs from 21° Capricorn to 20° Aquarius. The two Shem angels of the decan are Umabel and Iah-hel.

Motion: the solid set moving, disturbance, the pentagram, the microcosm entering matter. Geburah, Severity. The Fives are the crisis cards of each suit; the Hierophant is trump V.

Thinking undermined by feeling; the argument lost because it was never held with conviction. The Swords are usually read as the thinking function in Jung's typology, an interpretive convention rather than a text of Jung's.

Rider-Waite calls the suit Swords. Its small cards carry scenes; the Thoth small cards carry the suit emblems arranged geometrically, with the keyword printed at the bottom and the colours of their Sephirah and decan. The Golden Dawn title (Lord of Defeat) is shared by both traditions.

Venus at its best gives grace, charm, artistry, loyalty, peace-making. At its worst: vanity, laziness, people-pleasing, jealousy, indulgence, love used as a bargaining chip.

Aquarius (“I know”) brings originality, idealism, friendship, independence, objectivity, reform. Its shadow is detachment, contrarianism, cold intellectualism, stubborn ideology, aloofness.

Together: Venus has no essential dignity or debility in Aquarius. Dignity explains part of the title and the Sephirah explains the rest: a planet at home in its sign can still sit in a hard sphere, and a weak planet can be carried by a strong one.

The Sun crosses this decan around Jan 20–29, so it is the decan card of anyone born then; their court card is the Prince of Swords. Find a birthday.