Swords · Air
Five of Swordsfor Aries · Self and Identity
"Conflict isn't the question. What you do next is."
Six quick picks first, then your reading
A disdainful man looks after two retreating and dejected figures. Their swords lie upon the ground. He carries two others on his left shoulder, and a third sword is in his right hand, point to earth. Swords represent knowledge and the five card represents conflict. Together the five of cards represents a difference of opinions-- but opinions held deeply. Sometimes even when you win, you lose things that are important to you.
A turbulent card-- every human gets angry and you are feeling angry lately. Anger helps you understand that your needs aren't being met. Anger is not a bad thing, but acting towards others in anger is. If you are in a relationship where you fight a lot, pay attention to what needs aren't being met. You deserve to have those met, but act with integrity and don't be petty towards someone you love. Ask for what you need and if your needs cannot be met move on.
You are avoiding your anger, pushing it down and down. You do not want to be angry, you do not want to have conflict. Perhaps you fear you will lose the ones you love most if you bring it up. This leads from anger to resentment; a place that is hard to comeback from. Conflicts are unavoidable in relationships and friendships, but you need to communicate your needs to your friends/family/partner. The trick is to not avoid anger or conflict; notice and bring up the feelings before it's insurmountable
Its place in the deck.
Where it shows up.
Five of Swords for Aries in Self and Identity
The Initiator
Swords are the air suit, so the Five of Swords sits in Libra. Libra sits directly opposite Aries, so this card describes the half of the situation Aries habitually hands to someone else. What it wants is this: write the sentence down and stop rewriting it. Handing that to another person is exactly the habit. Upright, the loss is happening rather than being feared, which is the harder and simpler thing.
When reading about yourself through an Aries lens, the Five of Swords says that you feel like your body is a machine to prove something with, a problem to outrun (or overcome), and the only thing you trust because it does what you tell it to. This has either made you physically strong and brave enough to try what others won't, or left you injured and angry at your own body for not cooperating with your will. You have been so focused on who you think you should be that you haven't checked in with who you actually are. The Aries blind spot in it is the feeling that nothing you do makes any difference, that you are not the center of the story.
In practice that can look like a loop that finally breaks, or seeing your own pattern in writing. Whatever form it takes, it is breaking, and the loss in it is real.
Somewhere else?
Keep the thread
Artemis remembers what you asked, and tells you when something comes back around.
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