VIII, Suit of SwordsEight of Swords tarot card meaning
Upright and reversedEight of Swords in shortIn short
The Eight of Swords is feeling trapped. A woman stands blindfolded and tied, eight swords planted around her, and nothing actually holds her there. Waite calls it a short spell of captivity. The way out exists; she just can't see it yet.
- Restriction
- Feeling trapped
- Fear
Piece oneThe wet ground
She stands barefoot in mud full of pale blue puddles. The water reaches her feet. It's a cold place to stand, and she has stood there a while.
Why it is hereThe wet ground shows how long she's been stuck. She stands barefoot in cold mud, pools at her feet, and nothing on the card offers a dry place to go. The swords stand in the same ground around her. The puddles also say the land is low: she's at the bottom, with dark hills rising behind.
Piece twoThe swords
Eight swords stand point down in the ground, three on the left and five on the right. They make a fence with open gaps, and none of them touches her. The fence is real. So is the way through.
"...with the swords of the card about her."Waite, 1911
Why it is hereThe swords are the trap, and they're also the way out. They stand around her in a loose fence, three on one side and five on the other, with open gaps. None touches her or the bonds. She can't see them, so she doesn't know the gaps are there. The blindfold makes the fence stronger than it is.
Piece threeThe blindfold
A grey band covers her eyes and her head hangs. Waite calls her hoodwinked. She can't see the swords, the ground or the gaps between them, and most of her trouble lives there.
"A woman, bound and hoodwinked..."Waite, 1911
Why it is hereThe blindfold turns a fence into a prison. With her eyes open she'd see the gaps between the swords and walk out. Covered, she knows only the bonds on her arms and the cold under her feet. Her head hangs, so the card is about what she believes as much as where she stands.
Piece fourThe bonds
Loose grey bands wrap her body and pin her arms. They're cloth, tied to nothing at all. Waite calls the card a passing confinement, one that won't last.
"Yet it is rather a card of temporary durance than of irretrievable bondage."Waite, 1911
Why it is hereThe bonds are the weakest part of the trap. They're loose bands of cloth, wrapped round her body and tied to nothing. With the blindfold off, she could wriggle free. Waite sees the card as temporary, and the bonds show why: fear holds her here more than force does.
Colour, and where else it appearsEchoes
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The wet ground
Brown and ochre earth broken by pale blue pools, the only soft colour down here. The blue puddles pick up the grey blue of the blades above them, so ground and swords feel like one cold place. Her red dress sits right in the middle, warm against all of it. The cold reaches her bare feet and stops there.
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The swords
Pale silver blades on dark grey hills: everything around her is cold, except her red dress. Upright swords stand in the Six of Swords too, packed in a boat that carries passengers away from trouble. In the Seven of Swords two blades stay stuck in the ground after a thief runs off. These eight hold no one, and still she waits.
Also in -
The blindfold
Grey cloth the colour of the sky and the bonds, on near black hair: the band over her eyes matches everything around her. The Two of Swords wears a blindfold too, seated, arms crossed, holding two swords herself. That woman chose her stillness. This one stands bound in the mud, and none of the swords is in her hands.
Also in -
The bonds
Grey bonds over a deep red dress: the red is life and feeling, still strong under the wrapping. Restraints return in The Devil, where two figures stand chained to a dark block, the chains hanging slack around them. Both cards bind people with something they could get out of. The Devil's chains are iron. Hers are cloth.
Also in
Colour notes are ours, read from the picture; Waite does not explain the colours.
Eight of SwordsUpright
You feel trapped, unable to move or see a way out. Waite's list is heavy: bad news, violent chagrin, crisis, censure, power in trammels, conflict, calumny, and sickness.
The picture says more. The bonds are loose, the swords leave gaps, the blindfold can come off. Fear and a narrow view hold you. Take one small step and look again.
Eight of SwordsReversed
Waite's words: disquiet, difficulty, opposition, accident, treachery, the unforeseen, fatality. The trouble may come from outside: someone works against you, or something nobody saw coming happens.
The bonds may also loosen, and you start to move, slowly. Stay alert. Don't trust every hand that offers to untie you.
Yes or noNo, for now.
No, for now. You feel stuck and can't see clearly. Ease the fear, look again, and the answer can change.
Eight of Swords in your lifeIn your life
Love
You feel stuck in a relationship, or fear of hurt holds you back. Sort the real obstacles from the feared ones.
Work
A job that feels like a trap. You have more options than you can see. Talk to someone outside it.
Money
Money worries box you in. Write down the facts. The real picture is usually looser than the fear.
Health
Waite links this card to sickness, and to stress held in the body. A card can't diagnose you; if something's wrong, see a doctor.
Spirituality
Old beliefs that protected you may now box you in. Notice the thoughts that keep you small.
Advice
Take off the blindfold. Look at the situation as it is, then take one step.
As a person
Someone who feels stuck and powerless, and can do more than they think.
Past, present, future
Past: a time you felt trapped or silenced. Present: fear and a narrow view hold you back. Future: the bonds loosen once you see the way out.
Written by us, from Waite's meanings and the picture.
Symbols and correspondencesAt a glance
- Suit
- Swords
- Element
- Air
- Astrology
- Jupiter in Gemini
- Sephira
- Hod
- Upright
- Bad news
- Reversed
- Disquiet
QuestionsCommon questions
It's a hard card: crisis, restriction, fear. Waite says the trap is temporary, and the picture leaves gaps to walk through.
Feeling stuck, unseen or afraid. Separate what you fear from what is actually there.
No, for now. It can change once you see more clearly.
Waite calls her bound and hoodwinked. Part of the trap is what she can't see. The swords leave gaps, and her bonds are tied to nothing.
Waite calls it temporary durance, a short captivity. It usually ends once you see the problem differently.
Waite shows a woman tied and blindfolded among the swords, and calls it a passing confinement that can be undone.
The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, 1911Card meanings and quotes: A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, 1911. Element, decan and sephira: the Golden Dawn's Book T. Colours, life situations, yes or no and questions: written by us, from Waite's meanings and the picture.
All 14 Swords