Page of Swords: sword up, eyes everywhere

Sword upright in the hand, rough ground underfoot: see the feet and the eyes first

Waite describes the Page of Swords as a lithe, active figure holding a sword upright in both hands while in the act of swift walking. He passes over rugged land, the clouds about his way are collocated wildly, and he is alert, glancing in every direction as though an enemy he expects could show up at any moment.

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BaZiFlow original Page of Swords

The original Rider-Waite-Smith card has him on top of a green mound, the sword raised from beside his shoulder, hair blown out by the wind and the face turned to one side. Clouds are banked behind him, a flock of small birds is at the upper left and a wind-bent tree at the lower left. BaZiFlow's drawing is composed differently: the figure stands on a rocky height with one hand at the brow looking far off, the sword upright behind, wind lines and birds in the sky.

What Waite lists: overseeing, vigilance, examination, mostly looking

Waite's divinatory meanings run: authority, overseeing, secret service, vigilance, spying, examination, and the qualities thereto belonging. Of the six words, overseeing, vigilance, spying and examination are acts of looking, while authority and secret service are names of offices.

Authority, overseeing, secret service, vigilance, spying, examination, and the qualities thereto belonging.

Not one of the words is an outcome. They describe ways of working: standing high, looking closely, checking carefully. The closing phrase "the qualities thereto belonging" also shows that Waite is listing a family of qualities and not an event.

The additional meanings, Part III §4, from other readers add: "An indiscreet person will pry into the Querent's secrets", and under reversed "astonishing news". Those are other readers' rules, kept apart from the main entry.

Upright sword, wild clouds, rough ground: the text, the original card and the drawing

Three details are written and drawn differently in the three sources:

The text has no wind and no birds; the original draws hair blown out, and the drawing adds wind lines. The sense of alertness from wind and birds comes from a picture, so name the source of that feeling.

Using it: sweep a complaint letter left, right and behind before it goes out

Two features of the card are directly usable: the sword is upright and not yet swung, and the figure keeps glancing around. Put them on a complaint letter. You are writing to a renovation firm whose agreed completion date has slipped three weeks; the letter is drafted and not yet sent.

1. 1

   Look left: do the facts match?

   Order number, dates, amounts, message history: go through them one by one. Every number and date in the letter should be traceable to a line in your records.

2. 2

   Look right: how will they answer?

   Stand where the reader stands and list the two or three replies most likely. Put the evidence into the letter first, so that each reply already meets its answer.

3. 3

   Look behind: what is missing?

   Waite's reversed side speaks of what is unforeseen and unprepared. Ask: if the reader asks "what outcome do you want?", does the letter say? Are the request and the deadline both there?

Keep the sword upright: while you sweep, the letter carries no guesses without evidence and no lines written in anger. One example for each direction:

Reversed and neighboring cards: the same vigilance, with "unprepared" on the other side

Waite's reversed side reads: the more evil side of these qualities; what is unforeseen, an unprepared state; and a mention that sickness is intimated (one word of a 1910 list). The upright words are about looking, and the reversed side points two ways that can be read as looking too much or not looking at all.