Waite–Smith, Swords
Nine of Swords
What you can see
A figure sits upright in bed with both hands covering the face. Nine swords run horizontally across the dark background above a patterned coverlet.
What Waite says
Waite reads profound grief and a range of fears and disappointments. These belong to a historical divinatory list; the picture alone does not establish what event has occurred or will occur.
Waite · Part III, §2 · printed p. 236 ↗Edition and image credits
Pamela Colman Smith, illustrations in The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, Rider 1922 reprint, first published 1910. The scans keep the printed borders and page marks, with no cropping or recolouring.