The Suit of Swords deals directly with ideas, plans, hopes, and at some level, dreams and aspirations. The Ace of Swords Tarot card is the first card in the suit. As such it deals with fresh new starts, new ideas, hopes, and plans. When you see the Ace of Swords towards the beginning of your Tarot consult, in what I consider the foundational positions of the consult, it represents the start of a particular train of thought in regards to the situation or interaction. Upright, it will denote fresh new positive ideas. Reversed, it will denote… shall we say, less than the most positive ideas. It’s not ALWAYS negative, just not the most well thought-out concepts.
To see it show up later in a consult, in the future or predictive positions, it shows us a change from one frame of mind to another. Depending on the surrounding cards, this denotes changes to the actions stemming from the ideas, which can indicate change to the direction the situation or interaction is heading, from that particular point forward. The true power of the Ace of Swords lies in its ability to take concepts, dreams, or hopes and manifest them into actual actions. It is in the direct impact that thoughts which are intangible can have a direct and lasting impact on the path a particular situation or interaction takes.