Eight of Swords
feeling trapped · restriction · self-imposed limits · a way out
Card art: Pamela Colman Smith, 1909, for A. E. Waite. Public domain.
The suit of Swords
In a few words
- feeling trapped
- restriction
- self-imposed limits
- a way out
Bound and blindfolded among swords, but the ropes are loose and the ground is open. The trap is mostly in the mind.
Upright
- Everything
- Bound and blindfolded among swords, but the ropes are loose and the ground is open. The trap is mostly in the mind.
- Love
- Feeling stuck in a situation you could leave. Ask who tied the ropes.
- Work
- Boxed in by rules, or by your own belief that you have no options. You have more than you think.
- Money
- Feeling powerless about money. Small steps free you; start with one.
- Myself
- The blindfold is fear. The swords are not touching you.
Bad news, violent chagrin, crisis, censure, power in trammels, conflict, calumny; also sickness.The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1911), p. 238
Reversed
- Everything
- The ropes come off. Seeing the way out, taking it, sometimes with help.
- Love
- Freedom from a bind you accepted too long. A new perspective.
- Work
- Options appear. A restriction lifts, or you stop obeying one that was never real.
- Money
- Relief from a financial trap. Help arrives, or you finally ask for it.
- Myself
- Self-acceptance loosens every knot. You were never as stuck as you felt.
Disquiet, difficulty, opposition, accident, treachery; what is unforeseen; fatality.The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1911), p. 238
The card, as Waite described it
A woman, bound and hoodwinked, with the swords of the card about her. Yet it is rather a card of temporary durance than of irretrievable bondage.The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1911), p. 238
The plain-word meanings on this page were written for ShreeJyoti and are still under review.