Seven of Swords

Identity

Symbols

• Five Swords in the ArmsFive swords bundled awkwardly against his chest — no practiced carry, but an improvised smuggling. By count he can still justify himself; by posture, his haste has already betrayed him.+

  Waite has him "carrying away five swords rapidly," and the grip shows the haste: he clutches them by the blades, hilts up and points trailing low, an armful taken as cargo rather than held as weapons.

• Two Swords Left BehindThe two swords left planted are a token concession — 'I didn't take them all' becomes a form of self-justification. Yet these two are also what will let him be identified later.+

  In the Golden Dawn system this is the "Lord of Unstable Effort," read in Book T as "partial success, yielding when victory is within grasp." Two of the seven remain upright in the ground; the haul stops short.

• The Striped Tents Close BehindThe striped tents stand just behind him — this is no chaotic place but an institution, a whole consensus he is withdrawing from. Leaving a consensus takes more nerve than leaving a quarrel, and is more easily read as betrayal.+

  Waite's only word on the setting is "A camp is close at hand." Smith crowds the tents and their pennants into the right edge, behind the two standing swords, while the man strides left, face still turned toward them.

• The Glance BackThe backward glance — the most honest moment of this card. He knows what he is doing is not entirely above board; the half-smile is an incomplete confession.+

  Waite admits the card is "uncertain in its import," its meanings "widely at variance with each other." The figure is split the same way: his stride goes one way, his face turns back over his shoulder the other.

• Feet on TiptoeHe moves off on the balls of his feet, the rear heel lifted — a step made to be quick and light.+

  Waite's "rapidly" lives in the feet: a wide stride with the rear heel already lifted, red boots bright against the brown ground, both toes pointed away from the camp that his face is turned toward.

Story

A flat yellow sky fills most of the card, and across it one figure is caught in a long sideways stride toward the left edge, his arms full of blades gripped by the steel. Under a red cap his head twists the other way, back toward the tents crowded at the right. Ahead of him the ground is low and open; behind him everything is close. Body and face disagree, and the scene is stretched between its two edges: the way he is going and the place he keeps looking at.

Correspondences

Elemental Dignity

Shadow

Related Cards

The Magician

Five of Swords

Seven of Pentacles