Synthetic Meaning
The central sword, precisely defined and of yellow color which, in the Nine of Swords, divides the oval formed by the eight stylized swords. The central sword symbolizes a mental effort made to rupture the stability which the harmony of 8 tends to create, thus realizing an evolution in the organization of the most complicated and richest idea.
Analytic Meaning
The evolutionary wealth to which the 9 can lead depends on ending the system of individual units, because the next number, the 10, has a meaning analogous to the general and synthetic organization which concludes a cycle in order to open a perspective of indefinite points.
The small flowers on the exterior [1] are the expansions which necessitate the word of mental activities of the Nine of Swords, so that it can be accomplished with clarity and understanding of its repercussions; in other words, these are the discriminations which Being is obliged to make in the course of its deductive inquiries, which is to say, of its investigations in the atmosphere.
The horizontal line in the middle of the sword represents a hairline fracture due to the effort of the painful will which Being is obliged to exert in order to break up the strong passivity of the 8.
The greatest number of stylized swords occurs on the 8, because the number 10 has but the same 8 swords. This is due to the balance of the two quaternaries of the 8, which realizes a synthesis and allows the currents of mental activity produced in the subconscious to be complete. A new activity, introducing the number 5, would imply a transition, that which would be incompatible with the notion of finality which characterizes the 9.
Nevertheless, the idea of continuity of the numbers reappears, not successively, which would be contradictory to that which has just been said, but virtually, by the sectioning of the swords into four segments, which leads to the number 16, which is doubled again and forms 32 arcs, if we add them to the end of the swords at the four corners of the card. These four repetitions of 8 engender a dynamic equilibrium which is effectively positioned in the 8 and which evokes the idea of an indefinite repetition in the form of successive octaves.
To complete that which had been said on the subject of these segments in the Two of Swords, it is necessary to remark that the four dividing points are located at the end of the four axes. The junction of stylized swords in blue on the vertical axis indicates a psychism which mixes the total number of swords in the part above and the part below. The number of swords characterises, in such cases, the number of impulses based in emotion which enter into an act of will, while the interruption of yellow on the swords indicates the act of will in itself in its mental expression. The impulsivity is situated on the vertical axis owing to the active character of this last thing; the will which triggers and which is the fruit of internal and external work of Being is placed on the horizontal axis, by analogy.
The blade, the hiltguard and the pommel are yellow to mark the intervention of intelligence, the handle remains red, ribbed with black lines as all literal swords.
Meanings As They Relate to the Three Planes
MENTAL. Mental activity, clarity, inspirations in all that which is of an intellectual order.
ANIMISTIC. Emotional state; love illuminated by intelligence, powerful, not owing to its material side, but owing to its depth.
PHYSICAL. Matters which shine, directed by a mastery which delivers success.
INVERTED. False judgement (the mirror of the 8 is cloudy and reflects, while distorting them, cosmic qualities). Unjustified pretension to make judgements.
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In its Elementary Sense, the Nine of Swords represents for Man the necessity of accomplishing a perservering task in order to get free of the contingencies likely to create in itself a deceptive sense of stability, which may arrest its evolution, the impediment which would prevent the intellectual rays from penetrating in the elaboration of the material, and from acquiring mastery over it.
[1] They have been made smaller than those appearing on any of the preceding cards.
Small Cabin in the Woods 