Two of Swords Tarot Card Meaning

Two of Swords upright

A blindfolded woman sits with two swords balanced across her shoulders. Waite lists conformity, the equipoise it suggests, courage, friendship and concord in a state of arms — and also tenderness and affection. You are keeping the peace by not deciding; that can work for a while.

Two of Swords reversed

Waite reversed gives imposture, falsehood, duplicity and disloyalty. Someone may not be what they seem — take off the blindfold and look at the facts.

A reversed card (What does Upright / reversed card mean?) is one drawn upside-down.

Is Two of Swords a yes or no?

Upright: Mixed / not yet. Undecided — you need more information before the scales tip.

Reversed: Reversed, Two of Swords reads as a gentle no: deception, disloyalty, imposture.

The yes/no lean is BornClock’s reading convention drawn from the card’s meaning — Waite himself did not assign one.

Symbolism in the Two of Swords card

What appears in the 1909 Rider–Waite–Smith picture, as Waite describes it:

• Blindfold — not seeing — or choosing not to look
• Two swords balanced on the shoulders — Waite: equipoise

In Waite’s own words (paraphrased)

Upright: conformity, equipoise, courage, friendship, concord in a state of arms; tenderness, affection, intimacy.

Reversed: imposture, falsehood, duplicity, disloyalty.

Source: A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910, public domain). Some of Waite’s 1910 fortune-telling meanings are old-fashioned; the plain-English reading above is ours.