Sword Count

Little Baron

I have recently cut the borders from my Thoth.

When I used it, briefly before, I relied on the titles. Now I don't have any, I seem to be looking at the pictures more.

I may just be an idiot and have got this all wrong, but -

On the 'Ten of Swords', to me, there only appears to be eight. Even though there is the broken one in the centre with the heart as it's handle, I can then only count nine.

In the 'Two of Swords', including the mini ones, there are four.

Anyone know anything about this? I never noticed these things before.

Yaboot
 

Rusty Neon

Yaboot001 said:
On the 'Ten of Swords', to me, there only appears to be eight. Even though there is the broken one in the centre with the heart as it's handle, I can then only count nine.

You got me interested, so I checked this out in Crowley's _Book of Thoth_.

Crowley mentions that two of the swords have been splintered. There are 10 sword handles on the card. The 'sword' at the bottom of the card is really two swords, as there are two handles ('hilts'), one stacked below the other; the bottom-most sword has been splintered. The second sword that's splintered is the one in the middle of the card; it's mostly just handle, hardly any blade.
 

Little Baron

Aha Rusty! Thanks. I can see it now. I saw the middle one but missed the one below. What does Crowley say is the meaning of this? Does he mention anything about the four swords on the 'two'? Wouldn't have noticed this if I hadn't have chopped the edges off. Shows you how hard I was looking before, doesn't it? I just took it for granted that there were ten full swords on there and two in the other.

Yaboot
 

Rusty Neon

2 of Swords

Yaboot,

Crowley writes:

"In the card appear two swords crossed; they are united by a blue rose with five petals."

When I count sword handles ('hilts'), I see only two sword handles; thus, there are two swords, rather than four. The two crossed swords cut through the rose, so that the sword tips come out through the other side of the rose.
 

Little Baron

I mean the one at the top of the card touching the cresent shape and the one at the bottom touching the sign for Libra.

I have got that right, havn't I?

Yabs
 

Rusty Neon

2 of Swords

Yaboot001 said:
I mean the one at the top of the card touching the cresent shape and the one at the bottom touching the sign for Libra.

Oh, those two little swords! My blinders were on and I didn't even notice those!

2 of Swords is Moon in Libra under the Golden Dawn assignments.

Crowley doesn't specifically mention those two little swords. But, given that the two little swords are right up against the Moon (i.e., the crescent) and the Libra signs, perhaps the clue is in the following by Crowley:

"The Moon is change; but Nature is peaceful; moreover, Libra represents balance; between them, they regulate the energy of the Swords."
 

Little Baron

Excellent. Thanks Rusty. I thought I was going mad there!

I don't think I have ever noticed those before. It is interesting, also, that they both point in the same direction. That makes me feel, intuitively, that the balance of the 'two' could tip either way, depending on whether the card is upright or reversed.

Yaboot
 

Lemurian

As far as I know, Crowley decided to put a lot more references , like astrology, numerology and hebrew letters meanings in each of the cards in this deck.
The Astrological Rulership of the Two of Swords is Venus in Libra, which are the symbols over both little swords. Perhaps he made this just so that the reader might have a reference or an easy way to remember this Rulership.

Why he made this in another two swords and not over the Big ones? I think it has something to do with the direction of these two tiny ones. But am not sure what this means...