Reconciliation and Paradox
The Two of Swords seems to me a card of great paradox. We have the two swords piercing the rose, from which emanates rays of light, which then takes the form of the cross-shaped wings – and Crowley calls all of this “Peace.”
The key to understanding this card is to look at the energies represented. We have eerie powers of the Moon emerging to foment change, and we have the scales of Libra bringing things back into balance. So instruments of war, under the right circumstances, can represent peace.
I’ve long thought of this card as representing both the act and the mental state of meditation. Swords are the suit of the mind, and in most of the other pip cards of this suit we find nothing but upheaval and heartache. This Two bids us to still ourselves, and dwell for a moment in the presence of peace profound.