Five of Swords

In the centre of the pentagram you find chaos. Behind your eyes hangs the Hierophant inverted: anarchy, energy, the potential for unimaginable positive change and the threat of a wind of destruction blown through the open windows of your relationships.

The Fives speak of struggle. Look to the cards to understand the battles that must be fought and the fulfilment that may lie in victory.

Upright

• Battle
• Loss
• Hollow victory

The suffering of loss stalks your journey.

If it is visited upon you, perhaps you feel a sense of limitation, some unseen power conspiring against you to shatter the hopeful images you once held. Gather the pieces of these images, for your apparent failure may liberate you to reconstruct them into new beginnings.

If loss does not weigh on you, perhaps you are the cause of its weight failing upon another. You have inveigled your way into victory, with deceit as your sword and gossip as your shield. This victory will not last, and even while it does, it will bring little pleasure.

Look to the surrounding cards for guidance; when other signs are positive, the disappointment you suffer will be minor.

Inverted

• Mental warfare
• Defeat
• Recrimination

Despite the application of all your resources, both honourable and less so, a defeat has been inflicted upon you. Perhaps you find yourself beset by jealousy or envy, or preoccupied with an alternative present where you emerged victorious.

There is little to be gained through rumination and recrimination. You would do well to accept your position, and resolve to avoid such situations in future.