Cast & Chart
Five of Swords, Rider-Waite-Smith tarot card

Minor Arcana, Swords

Five of Swords

defeat, conflict, loss, dishonor

Upright

One figure gathers swords and smirks while two others walk away toward a rough sea. Waite's words are harsh: degradation, loss and dishonor. The picture shows a fight where someone won and everyone lost something, including respect.

Think of a workplace argument you could still win on points. Ask what the win would cost in trust, and whether you would want to work beside these people next month. On the losing side, walking away with your dignity may be the better move.

Reversed

Waite says the same for this position, and adds burial. Take that as the end of a quarrel and no forecast of any death. The fight is over, and what remains is the clearing up.

Someone may owe an apology by now, and it may be you. Send a short, specific one without excuses. When an old grudge still takes up your evenings, decide to set it down and stop rehearsing it.

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: Degradation, destruction, revocation, infamy, dishonour, loss, with the variants and analogues of these.

Reversed: The same; burial and obsequies.

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.