The Two of Swords means it is time to go deep into our core selves. This card will often appear when what we face is either a crisis brought about by our own faults or when we must confront a decision no one can help us to make. In any case, we will have to grow as a person and steady our resolve to face reality exactly as we find it.
So, stand before a mirror and let yourself be free to speak without editing.
In the case of Hamlet, let us first consider the number of soliloquies he engages. Hamlet spends much time delivering speeches to himself, bringing the audience into the workings of his mind. The soliloquy is exactly the act the Two of Swords requires. It is through the inner monologue that we find acceptance for reality-as-it-is. So, stand before a mirror and let yourself be free to speak without editing. We need to know what happens in our minds when we are not acting like overlords and critics. We need to make unguarded soliloquies to our own reflection.
When Hamlet famously questions whether to be or not to be he is in the thick of an existential quandary, the pitch black of wondering if he should have been born at all. He questions whether or not it would be better to kill himself than to embark upon the arduous task of both avenging his father’s death and serving the rights that will set his ghost free from purgatory. While this is the rock bottom of the Two of Swords process, it is important to grasp the value of one’s life for the sake of itself. Without this sense of value for our very breath, we will abandon ourselves to the isolation of permanent suffering. The answer is always to be and from there we ascend to what we might call purpose.
At some point, each of us will have to depend on our ability to be in the present and take on the moment at hand. While some of us might be very clever or physically strong, there will always be someone more clever or of greater strength. Further, there will eventually come a moment when one of both of these attributes will fail us. When we engage in the process of the Two of Swords, we teach ourselves to work with who we are and what we have rather than who we think we need to be or what we think we should have. If you are gullible, work with gullible. If you have a tendency to see the worst in others, work with the fact that your perception is often clouded by protective pessimism. Work with yourself in your truth.
Though the duel is intended to be only a sport, Laertes plans to cheat by sharpening the blade of his sword and poisoning the tip.
When it is time for Hamlet to duel with Laertes, Hamlet has already come to terms with life and death, with the futility of believing one’s plans can save them, and with the universe in general. Though the duel is intended to be only a sport, Laertes plans to cheat by sharpening the blade of his sword and poisoning the tip. Hamlet, however, is on top of his game, fully in the moment, prepared to win or lose, prepared to die at whatever moment fate sees fit to take him. It is for this reason, that the poison tip never touches Hamlet and he is able to turn the tables on Laertes.
Of course, Hamlet, Laertes, Gertrude, and Claudius all die during this event but what we must keep in mind here is the fact that only Hamlet was prepared for the hand that fate would deal him on that night. Hamlet avenged his father and made peace with the fact that, as he remarks, the rest is silence. After the duel, Denmark is restored to order under the leadership of another. This, it can be argued, was Hamlet’s ultimate destiny.
For the rest of us, the Two of Swords invites us to find our inner resolve and stand with it in word and deed. Not out of stubbornness or self-righteousness but because the flow of reality, the intricacies of fate, require our presence as our most realized self.
May the fates see fit to find purpose in us.
By Michelle EmbreeAuthor of Daydream Tarot: A Basic Guide for Visionaries
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