Pamela Smith Coleman is the genius who designed the images on the Smith Waite Tarot deck (commonly known as Rider Waite Tarot).

But did she have an issue with the swords cards?

Let’s take a look at them…

They’re a pretty miserable bunch. Not a happy looking scenario amongst them. Even the bloke in four has to take time out from his ‘issues’ (the swords above his head).

Compare them to some of the cup cards…

Or pentacles…

And even the hard-fighting wands…

There’s happiness. And success.

So why didn’t Smith show the positive side of the swords cards? Because they exist. They always do.

Swords cards represent air signs.

Gemini, Libra and Sagittarius type people. Free thinkers. Intellectuals.

My friend Charlie has a theory about this. She wonders if the co-creator of this deck of cards – Waite – was a bit of an a***hole. He was the intellectual who directed her drawings and certainly didn’t stand up for her right to be included in the deck’s name. He was also a Libran over two decades older than her. You can imagine his paternalistic attitude towards her in the early twentieth century.

Maybe Smith has a beef against air sign people as a result and this influenced her drawing of the swords cards?

What do you think?