The suit of swords • 3 lessons from the tarot minor arcana • Being our highest self & leaning into patterns of positive thinking

The suit of swords ⚔️ - the suit within the tarot deck that is associated with all things mentality, (over)thinking, the mind, thoughts and ideas but also the teacher that provides a lesson on the perils caused by patterns of intrusive thinking and the mind games we can all-too-often inflict on ourselves.

In this post I’m going to explain the 3 lessons offered by the suit of swords and then how those lessons can be used to bring you back to your highest self and soul purpose in this lifetime.

This post is one of many where I share my experience with tarot as a spiritual and self-development mentor and not simply a 🔮 fortune telling methodology (although I do love it for that too). By seeing tarot and the cards as mentors, or guides, I’ve uncovered the long standing secrets (‘arcana’ meaning secrets) that exist within the major and minor arcana cards of your tarot deck.

Lesson 1: Don’t Swords Yourself

Sometimes we may think that by investigating, “deep diving”, over-learning, researching, nit picking, overthinking and getting into mental spirals that were protecting ourselves or getting ahead. However, the truth revealed in the suit of swords is that this way of approaching life (particularly things that require more of your cups or wands energy) will ultimately lead to your own peril and demise, not more clarity or knowledge.

Leaning too far into swords - or your mental / intellectual self - will lead to misery and despair. The more you operate with your swords in any aspect of life, the more you run into feelings of despair, anxiety and dissatisfaction. The lesson here is to balance mental processes equally with your life-force energy, emotions, relationships and physical resources and not to rely solely or even heavily on your mental or intellectual abilities (despite what anyone says!). This balance is what keeps you away from ‘swordsing yourself’ or thinking yourself into ruin.

Lesson 2: Being cupsy

Being cupsy requires a little understanding of the tarot suit of cups. The suit of cups ultimately shows a storyline beginning with self-love through to complete love of the other (partner, family etc) and life itself. The suit of cups is about emotions, relationships, feelings, love and matters of the heart and the 10 of cups is that “happily ever after” card with traditional imagery of a couple holding hands, watching their children dance, standing in view of a beautiful home and landscape adorned with a beautiful sunset/sunshine sky.

Now there is a lesson here in the difference between the 10 of cups and the 10 of swords - why do the 10s of each suit give such different final states, and what does that mean? Well the imagery of the 10 of swords (a man laying face down with ten swords in his back) depicts the ruin that comes from over exertion or overflow of the mental and intellectual self. BUT the 10 of cups shows the result of an overflow of emotional wellbeing, relationships and love. The lesson here is to remember where each process gets you in life and how it is important to remain and prioritise your cupsy nature (your loving, heart led, relational and emotional self) over your intellectual or mental self (which for me - being a Scorpio mercury - is extremely suspicious and accusatory of others and far from my cupsy self).

So essentially, be cupsy in life and you will find a 10 of cups outcome and be reminded that your swords - if overdone - are usually very far from your cups. It’s your choice to lean into your cups.

Lesson 3: Knowing limits

The minor arcana suits show us the energies we should lean into and the limits on those energies. So as stated above, mental / intellectual energies shouldn’t take over and recognition of their overflow is required. Conversely, an overflow of cups energy leads to positive outcomes so the limits there are limitless. So what about the limits of wands and pentacles and how do they all interrelate? I like to see it like this; we need lots of cups and pentacles and limits on swords and wands.

Let’s look to the limits on swords and wands…

too much wands gives burnt out vibes and overwork and too much swords gives obsession and over thinking paranoia. The lesson here is that these two suits and their baseline energies require limits. They’re very much needed in this lifetime but just like salt in a recipe, it shouldn’t be overdone. The other two suits - cups and pentacles are (when expressed well) positive when abundant with an abundance of cups leading to a fulfilled happy life and an abundance of pentacles leading to wealth, legacy and stability.

So what we learn here is to use your swords self like salt in a meal - just the right amount does wonders but never add too much!

Getting back to our highest self

The lessons from the suit of swords remind us of the power we have outside our mental processes. The lessons here remind us that we can’t simply overwork or overthink our way to success or happiness. Nor can we just outsmart the system or think ourselves into our higher self and soul purpose.

As we go through our days we need to recognise where we are letting our swords run the show and how we can replace that with our ‘cups self’. For me, this comes up a lot in my relationships where I think my way through things or express my thoughts rather than expressing my feelings (cups) or feeling my way through things in a heart led manner. Make a point of this this week; recognising and correcting behaviours of leading with the head instead of with the heart. This is about choosing a new path and new storyline to align with (I encourage you to look at the storyline of the suit of cups for a better understanding).

By understanding that our swords have a place but that swords require limits we can more effortlessly flow into the life that is truly meant for us. The ultimate lesson here is that the journey to your highest expression of self is a felt journey and one that requires love, emotions and the feelings you have both spiritually and somatically. In this way, the journey is not one of thought or overthinking (swords) or one of work or burn out (wands) - even though they both are extremely important to the balance and ecosystem of the journey overall.

Conclusion

The suit of swords reminds us to let our minds be present but not front and centre. It’s a beautiful reminder against what we may be traditionally taught (or conditioned to believe) which is that our mind trumps our heart. The secret lessons of the tarot show us that this is not the case.

Remember that every tarot card, suit and reading is a guide but that you are the creator who chooses your path forward. Remember your own intuition when it comes to everything as that is the universes direct channel through you!

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Sending you all my cups and I hope this helped you today 🍶 .

M