Gauntlet of Swords: The Anti-Intellect

I have always wondered why intellect and communication was assigned to the suit that also signified such painful experiences at times. They seem to be the saturn of tarot, but as saturn, they leave a gift when they leave. I believe I found it.

Gauntlet of Swords: The Anti-Intellect

A really important question to ask yourself is which suit:

Wands, Swords, Cups, Pentacles

you would assign the element of Air to. Traditionally it is assigned to Swords. Also, traditionally, Air is assigned to meaning intellect because without air we would go brain dead.

* Water and intelligence -- Naw, it just don't fit. Can't breath without help underwater so you sure can't think.
* Earth and intelligence -- Big NAW. Impossible to think when you are under tons of earth from say an .. avalanche and have no ... air to breath.
* Fire and intelligence -- Nope, if the flames don't get you the smoke will definitely cut off the thought processes.

So we are left with Air and intelligence. Air feeds the brain so it makes sense. But assigning the element of Air to the suit of Swords? Why?

The only connection I can make here is when the sword is fashioned you need air to fan the flames to heat the metal and so on. But this doesn't take any real intelligence, nor does it have anything to do with the intellect.

But if we go with Swords = Air = Intelligence then why are so many of the sword pip cards detrimental. Did we suddenly lose our brains and do all the wrong things? Did we over-think problems until we could no longer see the truth or how to fix things. Or were we thinking instead of feeling?

To me it works better like this: Swords = Air = Anti-intelligence

Anti-intelligence means we use out intelligence in all the wrong ways, we out-think ourselves, or let our intelligence over-ride things like emotions and even common sense as many of the sword pip cards indicate. But if that's the case why do so many of the sword pip cards deal with emotions, deep emotions?

Are they warning us to not let our intellect get so in the way that we can't feel? Or is our anti-intelligence turning those feeling into something they are not or making us see things that aren't there. Or is it turning inward and making us blind to the truth.

This would make sense because after the Ace which gives us the mental force, sense of power, strength, courage, etc. of the suit of Swords we go directly to the 2 of Swords of blocked emotions. Meaning our own intelligence, or anti-intelligence is keeping us from seeing the truth and avoiding our own emotions and outlets.

Then when we wake up we realize what idiots we have been and maybe let the love of our life slip through our fingers and end up at the 3 of Swords and feeling heart broken and lonely. Or possibly we just have no friends because our anti-intelligence has run them all off. Maybe it would be better to call it our anti-ego-intelligence?

We need to rest and reflect (4 of Swords) and let our intellect kick in again. But we have been scared and our pride has been wounded (5 of Swords) by the 3 of Swords and have only our self-interest (5 of Swords) to guide us now. In our self interest we might hurt people or do things we might not be to proud of (5 of Swords). You blame others for your own shortcomings.

Using our own intelligence (or anti-intelligence) we realize the things we have been doing and go into a blue-funk (6 of Swords) so maybe we decide to go on a trip (6 of Swords). It's possible we could recover here (6 of Swords) but we need to change direction completely. Brighter days are ahead (6 of Swords) if we can get off this Gauntlet of Swords we are stuck on.

Oops, no such luck!

Did we take the journey in the 6 of Swords to meet people and to get away from our old life and habits. Or are we hiding away from life, from the guile and cunning of our anti-intelligence and trying to escape (7 of Swords) the truth and our own ever-churning thoughts? Are we the sneak thief in the night?

Now we become completely imprisoned (8 of Swords) by our anti-intellect. Feeling trapped and constricted we feel as if there is nowhere to turn. We have fallen into the abyss and don't know how to claw our way out. And worse of all ... we know what to do .. but just feel to powerless to do it. From every direction we seem to be blocked because our anti-intelligence will not allow us to see and feel the truth.

So we worry about it, gnaw at it, which makes us feel guilty (9 of Swords). We turn things over in our brains until they are so over-analyzed that we become totally lost. We anguish (9 of Swords) over things that might have been and of things we might have done differently. Our anti-intellect has 'kept us from seeing and feeling' until our emotions built up and finally explode.

We can't take it anymore and we finally reach bottom (10 of Swords) and all the blockage, pain, heart break, hiding, worry, and guilt of the other cards comes crashing down on us in a flood of pain and ruin (10 of Swords) and kicks our butt good.

But from here .... there is nowhere to go but up.

That is if you are intelligent enough to realize it and smart enough to do something about it. But that's what got us to this point in the first place so I guess we are doomed to repeat our passage through the Gauntlet of Swords. Some are doomed to let their anti-intelligence continue to rule their days .... for good or bad.

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http://tarotstudies.50webs.com/gauntlet_of_swords.shtml

When I read Duquette's book on the Thoth, he explains that the Swords suit is the mind and the ego. The mind and the ego believe that they are better than the other elements, that they can live without them, which is far from the truth, and that once the mind (air) is reached, that there is no higher level to attain, which again is not true. Air is apparently a superior element from the others that distant itself from the other elements' flaws and heaviness to think and analyse them, but as I said, air comes to think that there is nothing better than air, which is not true. Spirit (the major arcana) is the higher element. If people get stuck on air, they don't reach spirit and they don't enjoy the other elements' gifts as well because air, in its sense of superiority, will choke them. Hence why air has trouble dealing with the other elements, like water and emotions, and will have tendancies to deny them, to ignore them, which later cause pain and anguish. The Ten of Swords is apparently the mental and the ego finally being conquered, which would later open the door to spirit.

Hiya Rainwolf
I agree the suit of swords is overly negative in a lot of decks ,but I am learning that as within so without and the quality of our thoughts in regards to love ,relationships ,friendships and all life situations is directly related to our thoughts ,after all how many times have you thought of someone only for them to get into contact and how many relationships have been spoiled and sullied by fearful thoughts not based in love ,learning to think clearly and to trust in life is a difficult task hence I believe the abundance of negative cards in the suit of air .
I believe the Ace is a gateway a point at which we can see clearly and are not encumbered with preconcieved ideas ,therefore we have a purity of thought .
The two is the point at which we begin to juggle this pure idea into something we hope will be creative and positive it is at this point we have the choice where we can choose to follow this thought positively or negatively ,which I believe depends upon our previous lessons from life as to whether you have the strength to hold to the idea or whether we are distracted or undecided .
The three I find very interesting this is when I believe outside forces come into play ,there are things that are as yet hidden from view ,which can easily when we in our human state can easily become fearful as the idea is no longer our own and requires a state of trust and a willingness to grow .
The four a resting point to let these thoughts grow in their own time ,the point at which we while still attatched to the original idea ,need, as in spell work release.
The five can be seen as a point when we need to debate and communicate our ideas with others or when the idea is truly tested within .The energy of our thoughts is now truly mobile and reflected back to us in our outer life therefore if we hold conflicting inner values that is reflected as arguments from others
The six is a point of harmony ,a time when our new idea begins to move and we must release old outmoded ideas .
The seven a point at which we are starting to learn new strategies often we are learning from others and I believe the "theft" idea of the card stems from the fact that we are trying others ideas which may or may not be appropriate in our life
The eight every time I think of this card I hear the Wilson Phillips song about "Hold on for one more day "There is restriction here a blockage maybe things carried over from childhood ,things need to be re-worked and perfected to ensure we do not repeat past mistakes .
The nine a time of intensity of thought patterns and sleepness nights ,or is it a need to learn how to communicate our thoughts clearly and calmly
And the Ten a very powerful card we have truly outgrown our old thought patterns and have no choice but to move on .The gale that blows causing destruction and a need to build again .....
And so the Ace returns ....

But anyway there is so much to learn from this suit I feel I have only scratched the surface and return to the idea of as within so without .. and I always think an abundance of air cards symbolises intelligence ,and we are connected throughtout our body so I suppose it only natural that our thoughts and emotions are very connected,and where does it begin from the heart or the head !?!Strong ideas always seem to be backed by strong emotions and yet strong emotions should maybe not be thought about too much !?!
Right enough of my rambling
Blessings to all
She says while hoping one day that one day my thoughts may be pure and my heart full of love and trust .

In the Marseille & the Thoth the suit of swords is not negative. It is not positive either. It is like all the other suits - neutral: able to be positive or negative according to circumstance. It is traditionally seen as predominentaly negative in the RWS. And yet I wonder: is it really that negative, even in the RWS?

I am not dogmatic about its elemental attribution. I like to play with ideas, this one too. In El Gran Tarot Esoterico, Crystal Tarot and Tarot Balbi, swords are attributed to water - and it works. These tarots bring in the whole idea of the unconscious mind not necessarily present in other decks. In other tarots, Swords are attributed to fire, making the association with war and intensity very clear. That also makes sense. In the Marseille, of course, there is no formal attribution, though modern tarot authors make their own - air or fire, usually.

But to come back to the gauntlet thrown down by rainwolf: I am intruigued by swords far beyond their elemental attribution. Why are swords associated to thinking & to conflict? Not to mention pain? I don't like to accept attributions "because that's what's written in the book". It's too easy to say -much conflict and pain are mental. Much conflict & pain are also emotional, sexual & instinctive. And anyway - are swords to be reduced to "something to do with pain with the mental sphere"?

I think the answer lies in - as jmd would say - the implement itself.



What is a sword? How was it used in the days tarot was invented?

An instrument to fight. An instrument of war and of that peace-time war: duelling. An instrument to kill. And also, to cut.

It is also a work of great craftmanship. The extension of the swordsman's arm.

It is a symbol of justice, and of honour. A knight is dubbed with a sword. The sword pointing down (i.e reversed) is a sword at peace: the sword of the judge, of the king rewarding the knight, the sword in its scabbard.

From all these direct uses and symbolisms we have several extensions:

- killing and war imply conflict. Imply pain. But also: imply intensity, excitement, comradeship, adrenalin.

- cutting implies pain. Implies also separating, distinguishing - physically, at first, and by extension - mentally.

- craftsmanship & beauty implies thought, dexterity, practice, work, heart - all together.

- a swordsman was a well trained amateur or professional. They demand physical excercise, hours of gruelling training for years. Good swordsmanship demand lightness of touch, quickness. Remember the Tarot is Italian & French, like the art of the duel. By extension, quickness of body becomes quickness of wit.

- Most gentlemen and some ladies learnt to use the sword, and spent years at the practice. Few non-gentle people did. Since swordsmanship was seen as a sign - if not of nobility, at least of gentility - then by extension it was seen as a sign of nobility of character, even if wielded by a commoner (this idea was used in the movie Pirates of the Carribean, where Orlando Bloom plays the noble-hearted swordsman/craftsman commoner). Therefore swords, by extension, imply greatness of character. Here's where we get our teeth into the essence of what "greatness" means in the Western tradition from which the tarot issues. Anyone familiar with the Arthurian cycle will be able to say what a great knight was: a man of courage, a man of honour; someone able to die for his ideals, for his king and for his lady. A man whose ideal is Christ - that is, the ideal of sacrifice for a cause.

So by extension, the sword implies sacrifice, a cause, an ideal.

Lastly we come to the most abstract part of what the implement "sword" means: justice & honour. The latter can be explained by the ideal of the knight - with the king dubbing the knight with the instrument that symbolises his honour and idealism - the sword. But Justice? How did Justice - which we associate with a peaceful resolution of conflict - become symbolised by a sword along with a pair of scales?

How was justice rendered in the Middle Ages?

Weighing and measuring: the scales. The Lord in charge of justice would play Solomon and decide, according to what the parties told him, where the truth lay - some on this side, some on that: and looked at how the scales settled as between the two.

But sometimes it was impossible to decide. Or sometimes - in the early Middle Ages this was quite common - the parties would not submit to such peaceful but fallible decision-making. So the Lord would use another of Solomon's tricks: and bring out the sword. Fight it out, he would say: the winner is the one whom G-d has decided is in the right. Trial by combat. When the practice was stopped, the idea of swift justice blessed by G-d remained in symbol form at least.

And so we come back to our suit of Swords - and to the reason why I think it the most complex of all the suits, the most misunderstood too. Swords kill, maim & cut. Swords bring excitement & intensity. Swords are beautiful works of craftmanship and imply careful & intricate work, as well as hard work (try being a smith for a day!) and a sense of beauty and balance. Swords imply physical exercise, training of the body and mind together to develop quickness of movement and of wit. Swords render justice. Swords signal honour. Swords symbolise sacrifice to a cause - and by extension: that cause - and idealism itself. And swords imply the heart. Oh really? I hear you say. How about cups then? But swords do not mirror our hearts in the way the receptive cups do - the heart that receives love, suffers and opens (or closes). Rather - swords are the fighters, the knights of the heart: in their making first (a beautiful & well-made sword can only be made by a craftsman whose heart is in his work); and in the association of the sword with the knight, who dedicates his life to the Lady/the Cup.

This was understood, instinctively, by Pamela Coleman Smith, who chose the Sola Busca image for her 3 of Swords: three swords piercing a heart. These are not the enemies of the heart, its killers: but its very centre, the way the heart transcends its emotionality. Pain, sacrifice, love, courage and honour all mingle in that unforgettable image.

Helvetica said:

And so we come back to our suit of Swords - and to the reason why I think it the most complex of all the suits, the most misunderstood too. Swords kill, maim & cut. Swords bring excitement & intensity. Swords are beautiful works of craftmanship and imply careful & intricate work, as well as hard work (try being a smith for a day!) and a sense of beauty and balance. Swords imply physical exercise, training of the body and mind together to develop quickness of movement and of wit. Swords render justice. Swords signal honour. Swords symbolise sacrifice to a cause - and by extension: that cause - and idealism itself. And swords imply the heart. Oh really? I hear you say. How about cups then? But swords do not mirror our hearts in the way the receptive cups do - the heart that suffers and opens (or closes). Rather - swords are the fighters, the knights of the heart: in their making first (a beautiful & well-made sword can only be made by a craftsman whose heart in in his work); and in the association of the sword with the knight, who dedicates his life to the Lady/the Cup.

This was understood, instinctively, by Pamela Coleman Smith, who chose the Sola Busca image for her 3 of Swords: three swords piercing a heart. These are not the enemies of the heart, its killers: but its very centre, the way the heart transcends its emotionality. Pain, sacrifice, love, courage and honour all mingle in that unforgettable image.

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This is beautiful Helvetica

I also think of the sword as a metaphorical symbol of the mental art of discernment. Of mentally slicing things up so they become understandable, instead of a big gooey mess.
Discernment is necessary to logic and mental arts, clarifying things, taking them apart so it can be seen how they work.

Now I can make the connection between swords, as a concept, and mental activity, even prowess (defeat and triumph in the mental sphere) but the connection to air is a bit more tenuous in my mind.

If you think of air as wind, you can get its penetrating qualities, which you can relate to the sword (piercing). Air as a mental function, stirring things up, moving and separating.

Still, I can see why it can explained in other ways.

Marion said:

I also think of the sword as a metaphorical symbol of the mental art of discernment. Of mentally slicing things up so they become understandable, instead of a big gooey mess.
Discernment is necessary to logic and mental arts, clarifying things, taking them apart so it can be seen how they work.

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I agree with this. The sword represents our capacity for logic, the ability to separate "this" from "not this." (I suppose that's why the bodhisattva of wisdom, Manjusri, has a sword as his attribute.) In communication, this is the ability of one person to transmit an accurate representation of her thoughts to another person.

Somehow, with these things in mind, and the significance of swords as weapons: instruments of justice and coercive power and of worldly authority, I find I don't think about the element of air so very much in reading the swords. Unless I am checking on elemental dignities.

Helvetica, you transported me back into the movie, Kill Bill. That's a good thing.

-shaveling