Dodal, linked reproduction
As d'Épées
Jean Dodal’s Marseille pack · Lyon, 1701–1715.
Read the BnF catalogue record ↗The blade and the crown
A single upright sword survives the redesigns, while the hand, crown and surrounding light change.
Start with the pictures
Ace of Swords
Pamela Colman Smith · 1922 printing, p. 253
Open the source scan page ↗Notice what changes
Dodal
As d'Épées
A hand holds a red upright blade through a crown. Branching forms extend beside the crown, with small coloured shapes around the sword.
Smith
Ace of Swords
A hand emerging from a cloud raises a sword through a crown. Branches hang from the crown, with mountains below.
Harris
Ace of Swords · 1
A green upright sword rises through a bright radiating crown. An inscription runs along the blade, which divides dark cloud-like forms.
Open Harris’s painting and reference page ↗Now read the authors
Waite’s explanation
Waite emphasizes concentrated force, conquest and excess, in both love and hatred. He also leaves the crown open to a significance beyond ordinary divinatory meanings.
Crowley’s explanation
Crowley identifies the Ace with the original energy of Air and the sword of the Magus. He reads its inscription and radiating crown through the Word of the Law and the twenty-two trumps.
Does the sword support the crown, pierce it or receive something from it?
Write one thing you can point to in the image, one interpretation from a named author, and one inference of your own. Keeping the three separate gives you something useful to revisit.
Sources and image credits
The Dodal cards are one early-eighteenth-century Marseille witness. The black-and-white Smith plates come from the 1922 Rider reprint, whose title verso lists first publication in 1910. Colours in later editions can differ.
Foolmade supplies the linked Dodal reproductions. Its surrounding commentary is not the basis for our historical claims. These images are linked externally; the Smith illustration reuses the public-domain source scan with its full page context.
Harris’s paintings are linked on their host’s reference pages. Crowley’s text is the separately identified Thelemagick transcription of The Book of Thoth. Neither a modern reproduction nor a transcription replaces examination of the original artwork or edition.