Minor Arcana, Swords
Ace of Swords
clarity, force, victory, decision
Upright
A hand comes out of a cloud holding a single upright sword with a crown at its tip. Waite calls this a card of triumph and of great force, in love as well as hatred. It points to one clear idea strong enough to cut through everything around it.
In a dispute at work, this is the moment to state your position in one sentence and back it with facts. Watch the strength of it, though. A sharp truth can win the argument and still cost you the colleague.
Reversed
Upside down, the same force runs without aim. Waite says the results can be disastrous: a point pressed too hard, a decision made in anger, an email sent too soon.
Before you act on a strong opinion, wait a day and ask someone you trust to test it. Some old accounts link this card to conception and childbirth. That is no forecast, so take any such question to a doctor.
A card is a prompt for reflection. It cannot promise a result, and it is no substitute for medical, legal or financial advice.
In Waite's words
Upright: Triumph, the excessive degree in everything, conquest, triumph of force. It is a card of great force, in love as well as in hatred. The crown may carry a much higher significance than comes usually within the sphere of fortune-telling.
Reversed: The same, but the results are disastrous; another account says—conception, childbirth, augmentation, multiplicity.
From A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910), Part 3, on Wikisource. The meanings above are by Cast & Chart.
Card art by Pamela Colman Smith, 1909, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.