The Five of Swords
Universal Waite Tarot

A few years ago, I performed a single card reading for an old friend of mine where I pulled the Ten of Cups, an extremely encouraging card that perfectly harmonized with her circumstances at the time. She’d just moved her family out west to begin a new life together so as I shuffled the cards, I meditated on that situation until a palpable, resonant image came into focus. The scene that materialized revealed her gathered together with her family. I could see them from the back as they looked towards the horizon, to the gorgeous mountains and beautiful scenery which proliferate in that part of the world. And quite incredibly, but also typical given the often difficult to explain synchronicities one generates when dabbling in the magical, mysterious realm of the Tarot, the image on the Ten of Cups almost perfectly mirrors the view that had crystallized in my mind’s eye just prior to pulling the card.

The Ten of Cups speaks to a profound sense of contentment, happiness and the promise of wonderful things to come, and as I concluded in the reading, “…the time has arrived to take stock of all your blessings, and to be be grateful for all the good fortune life has generously provided you. It’s an overwhelmingly positive card. It’s aspirational and indicates that everything is right there within reaching distance, that you’re evolving towards as much human fulfillment as it’s possible to achieve in this existence.”

So fast forward a few years later to the present and a few highly significant events have taken place in the time since. After having raised four kids together, all now racing towards becoming grown-ups themselves, she married her long-time partner of 28 years and the father of her children. Why it took so long, I have no idea. Perhaps she was keeping him on his toes? Either way, it seems he passed the test and they finally tied the knot.

And then relatively late in life, she went back to school to develop a new vocation as a medical lab assistant. When she informed me of this news, she explained that her life had suddenly gotten very busy and she was now juggling three jobs at once.

So these were the circumstances I contemplated as I shuffled the cards, along with a random collection of scenes from her past, including some of the difficult periods I know she had to deal with.

The image that eventually came into focus depicted her in a rare moment of self-reflection so once I got a clear sense of her in this frame of mind, I stopped shuffling and pulled the card. It was the Five of Swords.

I’m speaking now to my friend directly:

It’s entirely appropriate for this one to come up as I was contemplating you in a state of introspection because that’s exactly what the card is screaming for you to do. It’s dramatically trying to impress upon you the importance of reflecting on the past and using the lessons learned and insights gained to face the challenges that lie ahead. And given that I pulled this card for your birthday, its significance applies to the entire year so I imagine it’s going to be a very eventful twelve months.

But let’s look at some of the details of the image to get a sense of how they apply to this reading. The first thing we notice is that the main character is looking behind themselves, back towards the distant lands of the past. The clouds in the sky represent the stormy weather you’ve successfully traversed in order to arrive at the shores where you find yourself now, standing tall and strong and in possession of three large swords.

The swords represent reason, wisdom and experience, all virtues that have been hard-won after surviving many turbulent, painful events in the past, beginning in the deep mists of time as represented by the distant shores seen on the other side of the water, and then everything that’s happened in between, right to the present moment.

The diminished figures seen over your shoulder are reflections of who you were at earlier stages of your evolution, both when you were very young and again when you started to gain some level of experience.

In both of these representations, we see that the characters are not holding onto their swords, indicating moments in your life where you didn’t possess the necessary understanding to successfully navigate your reality. But as turbulent and dramatic as many of the details in this image appear to be, we must take note again of the central figure, confident, firm and even smiling, and unlike the previous versions of your younger self, now possesses a wealth of knowledge and insight that’s taken a lifetime to gain.

Unlike the first card I pulled for you, this one doesn’t speak to a joyous celebration of love and harmony, but it’s still a very positive card. It indicates that a maturity of self-reliance and self-knowledge now lies firmly within your grasp.

It’s going to be a very interesting year, and it’s not always going to be smooth-sailing, but unlike the earlier incarnations of your younger self where you may have felt overwhelmed by the rapidly shifting fortunes of the mortal experience, providing you do the deep self-reflection this card is demanding you to undertake, and if you can extract the necessary lessons learned, you’ll be able to meet whatever life has in store for you this year with a newfound strength, wisdom and a smile on your face.

Happy Birthday!