Dodal, linked reproduction
Cinq d'Épées
Jean Dodal’s Marseille pack · Lyon, 1701–1715.
Read the BnF catalogue record ↗The aftermath and the broken pattern
One picture shows people after a conflict; another shows disruption through the weapons themselves.
Start with the pictures
Five of Swords
Pamela Colman Smith · 1922 printing, p. 245
Open the source scan page ↗Notice what changes
Dodal
Cinq d'Épées
A straight sword stands within two pairs of curved blades. The surrounding arrangement remains symmetrical, with floral details at its edges.
Smith
Five of Swords
A foreground figure gathers three swords while two other figures turn away. Two more swords lie on the ground beside the water.
Harris
Five of Swords · 5
Five differently shaped swords form an uneven, downward-pointing arrangement. Loose petals appear around the bent and crossing blades.
Open Harris’s painting and reference page ↗Now read the authors
Waite’s explanation
Waite describes possession of the field but associates the outcome with dishonour and loss. Occupying the winning position does not automatically give the scene a favourable meaning.
Crowley’s explanation
Crowley names Defeat and relates Geburah with Venus in Aquarius to disruption. His visual explanation emphasizes mismatched weapons and a disintegrated rose, unlike the coordinated design of the Four.
Which visible relationship tells you that the conflict has damaged more than a single object?
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.