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Minor Arcana · Suit of Swords · Number card
Two · Swords
A card that falls upside down is read reversed.
Key words
↑ UprightA held balanceA truceA choice deferred
↓ ReversedPretenseDouble-dealingA false peace
What it means
↑ Upright
Blindfolded, arms crossed, two swords held level: a balance kept by not looking. Waite reads it as harmony under arms — a truce, a standoff, a decision postponed so that nothing has to be lost yet. A truce can be wise for a while. Ask what you are refusing to see, and whether waiting still serves you.
↓ Reversed
The balance is propped up by something untrue: a peace kept by pretending, a friend playing both sides, or your own yes that quietly means no. Look at who gains from the standoff staying as it is, and say the thing that has been left unsaid.
Two in Swords is a choice held off: two thoughts of equal weight that cancel each other out. In the 1909 Smith–Waite deck, this card shows a blindfolded woman seated with her back to the sea, arms crossed over her chest, a heavy sword resting on each shoulder, a crescent moon overhead. The blindfold shuts out information, the crossed arms shut out feeling, and the rocky water behind her is what she will not turn to face.
Upright
Conformity and the equipoise which it suggests, courage, friendship, concord in a state of arms; another reading gives tenderness, affection, intimacy. The suggestion of harmony and other favorable readings must be considered in a qualified manner, as Swords generally are not symbolical of beneficent forces in human affairs.
Reversed
Imposture, falsehood, duplicity, disloyalty.
A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910), Part III.