MISSIVE 29
The Possibility Space of the Two of Swords
The Two of Swords is sometimes a card of difficult decisions, and sometimes the card of indecision; both contradictory interpretations can be found across guides and studies. The Thoth tradition names it the “Lord of Peace,” and associates it with the Moon in Libra, describing the serenity needed to make rational decisions effortlessly. This is amusing in light of the fact that there are two distinctly dichotomous methods that readers may be using to interpret the card.
To make matters even more complicated, artistic choices surrounding this minor tend to be aesthetically convergent, even among more idiosyncratic decks:
The Two of Swords cannot actually be read without engaging with the substance of the card in real time; a call has to be made about the nature of the decision in question and its consequences. The reader has to identify the querent’s position relative to the card, regardless of whether they are being overconfident or indecisive.
The Spolia guidebook comments on this problem with an interesting interpretation:
“If each sword is an idea, the Two of Swords is a contradiction. Rather than balancing one idea against another, the two swords look like an impossible choice.
The swords are positioned to cut the head from the body, cutting off all other forms of information, like intuition and instinct.”
A bit of advice I would give is that thinking of swords as the suit of rationality, intellect, and decisions doesn’t quite suffice for actionable readings. Strategies tends to describe the material weight of the suit, and the sum of how we choose to engage with the world in spite of ourselves. It is especially how we choose to handle adverse and difficult conditions, hence its association with weaponry and suffering.
The Two of Swords is, like other Twos, a point of no return. It considers the weight of the querent making a decision that either defines or goes against their own nature. The mind is making this call, and is in a position to override the rest of the self if necessary. From here, the natural progression is to the Three of Swords, in which the querent steels their heart, and learns to live without whatever is lost in the process.
Making these kinds of decisions, of course, is unavoidable in life, but the challenge is to not be left jaded and numb. The threat of the swords must always be considered.
Yoshi Yoshitani’s Tarot of the Divine demonstrates this by depicting the goddess Sita during her legendary ordeal:
She faces a trial by fire to prove her loyalty to her husband, and chooses to step into the flames, weighing her devotion and love against the possibility of death. In the sea behind her are Scylla and Charybdis, alluding to yet another difficult mythic decision, in which Odysseus can only guarantee the majority of his crew’s survival in the Strait of Messina if he accepts a fixed cost: that six among them will die.
Though radically different stories in structure, each demonstrates a difficult and irreversible decision, and how commitment to a particular strategy informs what happens next. Sita allows her heart to inform her rational choice, and is rewarded; Odysseus relies on his wit above all else again and again, and though he makes it home, it is by the grace of another king; none among his men survive his command. These divided outcomes in juxtaposition illuminate the card’s substance.
The Two of Swords asks the reader to look at the cards on the table and determine the stakes so that they can be communicated to the querent. Clarifier cards may also be necessary. What is the potential cost to themselves, and to others? What is the reward, and is it enough to live with the cost? How will it come to inform who they are?
Decks in first image: (Top Left to Bottom Right): Soul Cards Tarot, Lonesome World Tarot, Spolia Tarot, Pagan Otherworlds Tarot, Borderless Smith-Waite, Eighth House Tarot, and the Fountain Tarot.