My Inference:
Not much about the title is represented in the image. The background is split between two rather pleasant pastel colors, decorated with angular scribbles. Are they suggestive of chaos? Is this the sort of defeat that isn't brought on by a calculating nemesis, but pure dumb luck? An inverted pentagram seems to be outlined by some amethyst-colored stones, and there are figures on the handles of the swords. One of the figures is a fish, another is maybe a snake; I could only guess at the others.
Since this card seems to tell no specific story, but rather warns of a sudden, unexpected failure, I take it as a warning to remain humble in times of peace and plenty, because you cannot always intuit the source of your next calamity.
Ziegler:
It turns out the "stones" I thought I saw in the pentagram are drops of blood. Has the color shifted during the printing process? The inverted state of the pentagram and the curvature of the swords signify unbalance and disharmony. The icons on the sword handles are a fish, snake, crown, ram's horn, and seashell, respectively indicating the past, a lack of renewal, lost awareness, lost momentum, and the need for protection. Ziegler goes on to define the message of this card as a need to acknowledge one's own irrational fear of defeat, then let it go. Not closely aligned with my reading, although there is a thematic link between awareness of one's vulnerability and paralysis due to fear of moving forward.
Rider-Waite:
Interestingly, the Rider-Waite version shows a man who has vanquished others and presumably collected their swords. This is a much more deliberate defeat than the random failure I intuited and the fear of action that Ziegler defines. Divinatory meanings include dishonor, destruction, and other consequences of actions that have literally failed.
Combined Reading:
The readings offered by Ziegler and Waite here are the least compatible I've encountered so far. They might still be reconciled by the Stoic principle that Man and the Universe will fail you -- and that's it, take from it what you will. The Universe (and mankind, who are themselves part of it) owes you nothing. The best you can do is be an ally to others as they cope with their own failures.