thinking about the suit of swords
I've been taking my tarot study more seriously this year and observed that being separated from all my books while I was in NJ for a month forced me to reflect on my personal interpretations. We just came out of Gemini season which is said to be connected to the suit of swords, and I realized I have a lot of problems with the suit's popular associations.
Firstly, why are swords associated with air? People say that the air element represents one's mental state, but I can't reconcile the idea that a symbol of violence/conflict is supposed to be my mental state even when said mental state is mostly tense and anxiety-ridden (lol). But fire makes sense for wands (creative/sexual energy), water for cups (emotion), and earth for pentacles (material reality), so it's impossible for me to assign different logic.
Secondly, why are the RWS cards for swords so damn negative? I don't believe in "good" or "bad" cards. The overwhelmingly negative images of bondage and struggle in the RWS illustrations seems unfair, because why must one's mental state always be associated with darkness? Of course I wonder if I'm saying that simply because I don't want to believe it's accurate, that I'm being avoidant or something.
I need to (re)read what other people have written about swords, but at this juncture in my ~Tarot Journey~ I prefer the abstract pip cards of the Tarot de Marseille since they allow a more open interpretation of the suit.