The Aces offer all the benevolent gifts of their suit, seeming to be offered out of the blue. They are positive cards of opportunity and inspiration

“The object of the intellect is truth.”

-Fulton J. Sheen

This Ace offers the pure gift of reason and clarity with none of the complications of the later cards in the suit. The sword being offered from the clouds is there to cut through illusion, pretention and denial. It is the keen intellect that can solve the toughest conundrums. Now is the time to clear your mind through meditation or challenge yourself with a difficult puzzle. This ace is also related to gifts from the world of law: contracts, inheritances, favorable judgments; and to gifts that prepare us for combat.

The suit of Swords has a bit of a bad rep. Many of the cards have to do with the misuse of our intellect, what happens when we cannot regulate our own thoughts. People easily understand the value of caring for their body, of pursuing their desires, of caring for their relationships. Fewer understand the necessity of maintaining the health of their own mind.

We can take the view that thoughts happen to us, giving them freedom to determine our state-of-mind. This leads to the problematic nature of the suit of Swords. There is much trouble here but also much opportunity for growth. When we recognize that there is part of us that is observing our thoughts, and that this part has the power to pick them up and examine them, to choose to throw them away or to redirect them; our mind becomes a miraculous tool.

It is this wise and clear use of the mind that the Ace offers us: a powerful mind that is our instrument, not our master.