Seven of Swords
stealth · strategy · deception · getting away with it
Card art: Pamela Colman Smith, 1909, for A. E. Waite. Public domain.
The suit of Swords
In a few words
- stealth
- strategy
- deception
- getting away with it
A man tiptoeing off with five swords, looking back. Strategy, cunning, or someone taking what is not theirs.
Upright
- Everything
- A man tiptoeing off with five swords, looking back. Strategy, cunning, or someone taking what is not theirs.
- Love
- Something hidden. Check for dishonesty, from the other side or your own.
- Work
- Play it smart, but watch your back. Someone may be taking credit or cutting corners.
- Money
- Beware theft, fraud, or a deal too clever by half. Guard your details.
- Myself
- Are you being strategic, or sneaky? Only you know.
Design, attempt, wish, hope, confidence; also quarrelling, a plan that may fail, annoyance. The design is uncertain in its import, because the significations are widely at variance with each other.The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1911), p. 240
Reversed
- Everything
- The plan unravels, or a confession comes. The thief is caught, or gives himself up.
- Love
- A secret comes out. Painful, but the air clears.
- Work
- A scheme exposed. Or your own conscience making you come clean.
- Money
- Recovering something taken, or a fraud discovered in time.
- Myself
- Honesty returning. Put the swords back where they belong.
Good advice, counsel, instruction, slander, babbling.The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1911), p. 240
The card, as Waite described it
A man in the act of carrying away five swords rapidly; the two others of the card remain stuck in the ground. A camp is close at hand.The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1911), p. 240
The plain-word meanings on this page were written for ShreeJyoti and are still under review.