An empty crossroads on a heath at night, a leaning signpost and poppy heads in the verge.

Swords · VII

Seven of Swords

Lord of Unstable Effort

The face of Seven of Swords, engraved in gold on black, with its title, Lord of Unstable Effort.

Cleverness can be a way of hiding. Ask what you are avoiding.

Upright

Strategy, stealth and getting away with something. Clever, but not always honest.

Reversed

Coming clean, or being found out.

Show the spirits

The spirit work

In the Goetia, Marax teaches the stars and the virtues of herbs by day; Ose changes shapes by night. Ask who is being deceived, including you.

Where the card sits

Correspondences

DecanMoon in Aquarius, 20° to 30°, the third face
Tree of LifeNetzach in Yetzirah
Governing angelsHahahel by day, Mikael by night
Image of the decanA dark and angry man.
Show the spirits
Day spiritMarax, president
The seal of Marax

Appears as a great bull with a man’s face. Teaches astronomy and the liberal sciences, the virtues of herbs and stones; gives familiars. Goetia 21.

Night spiritOse, president
The seal of Ose

Appears as a leopard, then a man. Teaches the liberal sciences, answers of divine and secret things, changes shapes. Goetia 57.

Seven of Swords in the guidebookAll seventy-eight cards

The Sablerune Tarot

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Seventy-eight cards in fine gold line. Hear when the deck is ready to hold.

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Notes on sources

The meanings, the questions and the correspondences are the guidebook’s own. The paths, letters and astrology follow the Golden Dawn’s attributions; the angels are the Shem ha-Mephorash, as the deck gives them; the spirits, shown only when you ask for them, are the seventy-two of the Goetia. Where each comes from, and what is old and what is modern, is set out in the guidebook’s Notes on sources and seals.