Five of Swords: Venus in Aquarius

January 2026 Tarot Card Astrology: Five of Swords

Venus is currently in Aquarius, and the associated tarot card is the Five of Swords. Venus, the goddess of love and pleasure isn’t too comfortable in Aquarius, the kingdom of logic and stoicism. But when the two combine around a utopian vision of justice and equality for humanity, they start to get along pretty well. Once we understand the astrology, we can find Venus in the image. Today, let’s explore Venus in Aquarius and the related tarot card, the Five of Swords.

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Please see all my articles on tarot card astrology. You might also like my video, “Love is Not Love: Debilitated Venus in the Tarot Pips,” where I discuss all the Venus-ruled Minor Arcana cards. If you’d like to receive a notification whenever I publish a new post, you can subscribe to this blog using the form right under this paragraph (it’s also at the top right hand column if you’re on a desktop computer).

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Five of Swords: Venus in Aquarius

• The Five of Swords is titled “The Lord of Defeat” and typical interpretations include conflict, fighting, arguments, and betrayal by friends. I like to say that Fives are conflict and Swords are communication, so the card represents communicating your conflicts, or speaking up about what’s bothering you. Another phrase I use for this card is “picking up the pieces,” meaning taking care of a mess left by someone else, or making the best out of what you have.
• Venus is the lover, and brings beauty, pleasure, connection, and affection. Venus in our chart describes our sense of aesthetics and what we value. Venus rules Taurus and Libra and finds her exaltation in Pisces.
• Aquarius is a fixed air sign with Saturn as its traditional ruler and Uranus as the modern ruler. Aquarius likes to be abstract, theoretical, and visionary. This sign uses its far-seeing idealism to establish the groundwork that needs to happen today so it can reach its goals. Aquarius commits to the betterment of humanity as a whole, but oddly it doesn’t relate well to individuals. It needs to focus on the big picture. Aquarius’s symbol is the water carrier and its glyph resembles two parallel waves.

Five of Swords: Venus ruling the First decan of Aquarius

• The calendar dates, when the Sun passes through this decan each year, are approximately January 19 to January 28.
• Venus recently passed through the first decan of Aquarius from January 17-24.

Venus in Aquarius

Venus is the planet of love, pleasure, affection, and connection. Venus represents who you love, how you love, and what you love. So when Venus is in Aquarius, she loves Aquarian things–theory, abstraction, rebellion. Aquarius correlates to the people, in opposition to Leo, which symbolizes the king or leader. The Aquarian utopia stresses humanity, humanism, and creating a better, more equitable, and just world for all. Venus, particularly as the ruler of Libra, is definitely on board! Venus, who loves making connections, in Aquarius wants to bring people together who share similar ideals.

Aquarius as a fixed air sign centers around ideas, logic and reason. Here Venus gets to show off her smarts. But while it’s doing heavy brain lifts, Aquarius loses focus on the emotional side of things. Feelings must be analyzed, categorized, understood, and filed away. Unfortunately, Venus isn’t into that. Venus wants to feel all the feels and share them with a friend. Although Venus can apply her appreciation to the pleasure that comes from thinking big thoughts, she doesn’t want to miss out on more ordinary experiences like simple happiness. To this end, being in Aquarius can be a source of frustration to her.

Interestingly, of the two signs Venus rules, one, earthy Taurus, which, like Aquarius is a fixed sign, is square to Aquarius, or in a challenging or confrontational relationship. The other sign, Libra, an air sign like Aquarius, is trine, or in an easy-going, helpful relationship. Yet again, Venus’s pleasure-oriented, tactile, and luxurious sign, Taurus, is at odds with the lean idealism of Aquarius. But Venus’s more thoughtful, considered, justice-oriented, and social equality sign, Libra, lends its support to Aquarius. The air signs definitely lend a different energy to the goddess of love!

Image of the Five of Swords

Let’s take a look at the card image for The Five of Swords. We see three characters.

One is toward the front, holding three swords with two at his feet. He is looking over his shoulder towards the other two characters and has a slight smile on his face. The wind is blowing strongly, lifting his hair. The water is choppy and long, stretched-out clouds race past above the scene. A storm is perhaps brewing, or maybe blowing over.

One character is at the back, near the water. This one has his head bowed in his hands. He appears to be weeping or distraught.

A third character passes through the middle ground. His longish dark hair, blowing in the wind, forms a fringe around a bald spot. Male pattern baldness in story-telling is often a symbol of weakness, gentleness, or being a “nice guy.” Mr. Nice Guy seems to be walking toward the character in the background.

Why is the man with the swords smiling? It doesn’t seem considerate when obviously someone is upset. Then again, some say that is an Aquarian trait, to lack social awareness and the commiseration gene. But nevertheless, the most common interpretation is that the man in front has battled the other two men and won these five swords. He’s the winner, they’re the losers, and so he’s smiling.

As I continue to explore the image, one other thing comes to mind–the smiling man has red hair. Red hair is an uncommon trait, but the highest concentrations of redheads are in Ireland and Scotland. Both those countries suffer from stereotypes labeling them as aggressive and enjoying a brawl. Not to mention that typical characterizations of redheads describe them as quick to anger. As a result, in the early 20th century when this deck was drawn, the red hair was a clue that the front character liked to fight.

Title of the Five of Swords: Lord of Defeat

The five swords in the image give us important clues about the title of the card. The Golden Dawn offered the title, “The Lord of Defeat.” The obvious question becomes: who won and who lost? Although many tarot readers subscribe to the interpretation that the man with the swords defeated the other two, in my opinion the answer is not so clear cut.

First of all, there are three men. So why are there five swords? If the man with the swords is the winner, having fought two men, wouldn’t he have his own sword plus two more that he won? Although there are reasonable explanations for too many swords (some of the participants could have been armed with more than one weapon), overall, the question makes me want to dig deeper.

Couldn’t it also make sense that the three people shown in the card fought two other people, people not shown here? And they defeated these unshown opponents, so there are the three swords of the characters we can see as well as two swords from the combatants who lost. In this example, the three men shown here are the winners and defeated their enemy.

Ultimately, though, I wonder if these three men had been five, the number of the card, and two of them were killed in battle. The remaining three have retreated to the waterfront to deal, each in their own way, with their defeat and the loss of their comrades. This interesting interpretation shows the emotional complexity of having succeeded in battle, but having lost someone dear to your heart. The card could illustrate a painfully personal defeat in the midst of what is technically a victory.

The Astrology of the Five of Swords

What would Venus say? Venus is heart first, she wants to know how each person is doing. She asks, Are you ok? Are you hurt? Were you scared? Do you want to sit down, to have a drink, to talk about it?

By the way, not everyone loves to win. Some people love playing the game, strategizing, plotting, and surprising their opponent. Perhaps Venus loves to be in the game, testing her mettle against others to see what they’re made of and to determine their worth. But when the game is over, so is the fun part. Maybe that is partly related to Venus in Aquarius. The pleasure is from the brainwork, the strategy. So when the game is over, the fun is over. Venus prefers working with others, she wants a partner, she likes to connect people. So when she wins, if everybody gets up and walks away from the game table, then she feels disappointed. She’d rather the game continue. 

So what does that say about the scene in the Five of Swords? Right now, the three people are not interacting. Venus wants them to interact. On an intellectual level, she’d just as soon they fight–connect with each other–than each stand alone.

Hmm. Does it seem like the character in the middle is on the move? He’s not just standing by himself, but crossing toward the person in the back, the one with his head in his hands. Maybe we’ve found Venus in the card. Has the middle man, Mr. Nice Guy, our proposed representation of Venus in the scene, already talked to the man with the swords? Maybe the front man is smiling because he’s already met Venus, experienced comfort and caring. Is the friendly one now headed to the other man to make him feel better? What would Venus’s emissary have said to the front man? What will he say to the man by the water? 

It makes me wonder, what emotional expression would Venus in Aquarius prefer? Perhaps in this Saturn-ruled sign she is more interested in a neutral emotional affect. If the front man was wound up from excitement and still in his adrenaline rush, maybe Venus wanted him to calm down to an easy-going smile. Perhaps Venus in a Saturn-ruled sign would like the man in the back to take a deep breath and dry his eyes and present a stoic front. Venus in Aquarius reminds us that feelings sink inward when logic shines outward.

I’m looking at that smiling man now, as he looks affectionately at the man walking away. Is this the result of Venus in Aquarius? Is his smile a reminder that there is pleasure, happiness, connection, camaraderie in the midst of defeat? Even when life is a constant battle? What a beautiful reminder that one person can bring grace to the times when our heads are farthest from our heart.

Mythology of the Five of Swords: Venus in Aquarius

I spent quite some time contemplating what stories would fit with the Five of Swords: Venus in Aquarius. I saw the following themes:

• Comfort (Venus) after a major challenge or bitter defeat (card title)
• Winning the battle but losing a friend (possibly implied by the image and card number)
• Sacrificing (variation of card title) a relationship (Venus) to defend ideals (Aquarius)
• Lose (variation of card title) a relationship (Venus) to save humanity (Aquarius)
  • Many superhero stories have that kind of plot, even police stories, spy stories, doctor stories, anything where the value and societal impact of the person’s work outweighs prioritizing a relationship, which ends up being sacrificed
• To drill down on the above example, choosing to save humanity even if it means sacrificing a loved one.
  • This makes me think of Spock at the end of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, where he sacrifices himself for the greater good. His famous quote is, “”The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.” And luckily for the many, many movies and series that followed, he was cleverly buried on a planet of rejuvenation.
  • This of course is also the primary theme of Christ’s crucifixion, Deity sacrificing his son for the redemption of the world.

Shakespeare’s Henry V

I called a friend, and she suggested the scene in Shakespeare’s Henry V where the French sneak behind the English lines and kill all the pages–she said that for the English soldiers, winning the battle against the overwhelming forces of the French only to return to camp to discover all the boys dead, all the sons and younger brothers, would be enough to find despair in a victory.

This was a great example, although I confess I didn’t remember it from the play, and had to look it up. As far as I can see, it’s only mentioned in a short section of one scene, and discussed by the two comic relief characters. Kind of sucks the drama out of a possibly powerful scene. On the other hand, the point is the English won against overwhelming odds and had only 30 casualties on their side, so as a war story it’s a celebrated victory. (If you like Henry V, I discussed the St. Crispin’s Day speech in Nine of Swords: Mars in Gemini.)

A Pyrrhic Victory

But the more I think about the Five of Swords, Lord of Defeat, the more I settle into the idea of a Pyrrhic victory, or a victory achieved at excessive cost. This is the idea that the losses sustained in the course of achieving victory are so overwhelming as to feel more like defeat. According to the 1st-2nd century historian Plutarch, King Pyrrhus, after winning a battle against the Romans, declared, “One more victory over the Romans and we are completely done for!” It can also be termed a “hollow victory.”

I think in many ways, that’s the feeling I get from this card. The swords gathered by the front character seem to indicate trophies, suggesting a win. But the emotional affect and mood of the scene, the stormy clouds and water, and the crying man express keywords that are common to the Swords suit: sorrow, loss, despair, disappointment, defeat. To me, these conflicting clues lead me to settle in to the idea of a victory at too great a cost.

Conclusion

So what does Venus in Aquarius have to do with the Five of Swords? She desires to bring peace to difficulties. Her appreciation of pleasure wants to bring a smile to their face, even in the midst of pain and loss. She wants to soothe the troubled brow, remind them of the vast value of what they’re fighting for.

In Aquarius, Venus appreciates a neutral emotional affect. She wants to calm the highs, elevate the lows, and even out the differences. To smooth the wrinkles.

The suit of Swords expresses troubles, challenges, conflicts, and stress. When Venus enters this environment, she feels distant from her normal self, perhaps even dissociative. Because building ideals and envisioning utopia are the pleasures Aquarius offers, she must adapt to the delights of the mind. She might even discover solace in more violent conflict resolution than her Libran leanings typically embrace.

The Five of Swords expresses the confusion and discomfort Venus must feel in Aquarius. But it doesn’t stop her from bringing her best face forward. Her smile might feel out of place, but she will make the best of a bad situation. Defeated? Never. Venus always sees the best in everyone and every situation, no matter what.