Minor Arcana, the Swords
Page of Swords
The Page of Swords is the page of the suit of swords, from the deck Pamela Colman Smith drew in 1909 for A. E. Waite. A young man stands on a rise of rough green ground and holds a sword upright in both hands, his hair blowing in the wind, with clouds and a flock of birds behind him.
What Waite wrote it means (1910)
- Divinatory meanings
Authority, overseeing, secret service, vigilance, spying, examination, and the qualities thereto belonging.
- Reversed
More evil side of these qualities; what is unforeseen, unprepared state; sickness is also intimated.
Arthur Edward Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (London, 1911), p. 232. Read it in the chapter
A lithe, active figure holds a sword upright in both hands, while in the act of swift walking. He is passing over rugged land, and about his way the clouds are collocated wildly. He is alert and lithe, looking this way and that, as if an expected enemy might appear at any moment.
What's in the picture
- The raised sword. He holds the sword up in both hands beside his right shoulder, blade pointing to the sky. Its point reaches the top edge of the card.
- The grip. His hands close around the hilt one above the other, as if he were ready to swing it.
- The face. His head is turned to the left, away from where the sword points, and his eyes look off to the side. Waite has him “looking this way and that”.
- The blowing hair. His hair streams out behind his head to the right, so the wind is blowing from the left.
- The birds. A flock of small dark birds flies high in the sky on the left, about ten of them, scattered.
- The clouds. Big round clouds pile up behind him on both sides, from his shoulders down to the ground. They are grey and white, with curling edges.
- Tunic and boots. He wears a short pink tunic with a white collar and a black belt, yellow sleeves and hose, and red boots laced up the front.
- The rough ground. He stands with his legs apart on a rise of uneven green and yellow ground, one foot ahead of the other, as if he has just stepped up.
- The bent tree. At the far left a small dark tree leans in the wind, and on the right a range of pale blue mountains lies low on the horizon, beyond a strip of water.
The card in brief
- In the deck
- Card 61 of 78
- Arcana
- Minor Arcana, Swords
- Number
- Page
- Element (Golden Dawn)
- Air
- Title in Book T
- The Princess of the Rushing Winds: the Lotus of the Palace of Air
- Drawn by
- Pamela Colman Smith
- Planned by
- Arthur Edward Waite
- Published
- London, William Rider & Son, 1909
- Scan
- Pam-A printing, c. 1910, Wikimedia Commons
In the old books
Book T (1912)
An Amazon figure with waving hair, slighter than the Rose of the Palace of Fire. Her attire is similar. The Feet seem springy, giving the idea of swiftness. Weight changing from one foot to another and body swinging around. She is a mixture of Minerva and Diana: her mantle resembles the Aigis of Minerva. She wears as a crest the head of the Medusa with serpent hair. She holds a sword in one hand; and the other rests upon a small silver altar with grey smoke (no fire) ascending from it. Beneath her feet are white clouds.
Wisdom, strength, acuteness; subtlety in material things: grace and dexterity.
If ill dignified, she is frivolous and cunning.
Book T, “A Description of the Cards of the Tarot”, The Equinox I.8 (London, 1912), p. 168. See the source Papus (1892)
A child, an enemy. Bad news. Delay.
Papus, The Tarot of the Bohemians, tr. A. P. Morton (London, 1892), p. 313. See the source
Before 1909
The older cards and pictures behind this one will be shown here once their licences are checked.
The film
No film for this card yet.
Sources
- Waite: a lithe figure holds a sword upright in both hands, looking this way and that.Arthur Edward Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910), Part III, Page of Swords
Around this card
Before and after it in the deck
The same number in the other suits
All the cards of the Swords, or the whole deck.