nisaba
That is the usual interpretation of the 5/Swords and how I would see it in this context. Can you tell us why that wasn't your view of it?
<smile> When I was young-in-Tarot, I used to have difficulty separating the Five and Seven Swords, I can understand the confusion.
That, and a two particular Majors. I found that as long as I had certain misapprehensions about the Majors in question, my decks behaved as if my idiosyncratic and -er- unusual reading of them was correct, and only when I did a bit more reading and modified my understanding of them, did they come out with more orthodox meanings.
Could it be that if for their own reasons the OP has a definite take on this card, then it could be giving them that message anyway?