Sword

The sword is discrimination — the capacity to cut one thing cleanly from another. Arthurian legend makes the drawing of the sword an act of sovereignty conferred. Buddhist iconography gives Manjushri a flaming sword that cuts through illusion. Jungian analysis reads sword-dreams as the arrival of a clarity able to decide. A sword in the stone, a capacity you have not yet tested; a sword broken, a discrimination you have tried and found insufficient; a sword passed to you, authority being conferred. Notice whether you draw, sheathe, or refuse the sword, and whether it is clean or bloody.