Tarot card meanings › Swords
Eight of Swords Tarot Card Meaning
The Eight of Swords tarot card means feeling trapped, self-doubt and restriction. Feeling stuck. Often by thoughts.
Upright
- Feeling trapped
- self-doubt
- restriction
Reversed
- Freedom
- a new view
- releasing yourself
Yes or no
Maybe
The Eight of Swords is one of the 14 cards in the suit of Swords. Swords are the suit of air: thought, truth, words and conflict.
What the card shows
A woman stands bound and blindfolded among eight swords stuck in the ground. A castle sits on a crag behind her. Her feet are free and nobody is guarding her.
This is the card as drawn by Pamela Colman Smith for the 1909 Rider-Waite-Smith deck, which is in the public domain.
Upright meaning
The Eight of Swords is read as feeling trapped. The usual point of the card is that the trap is mostly in the mind: the swords do not close the circle, and she could walk out.
Eight of Swords reversed
Reversed, it is read as seeing the way out, dropping a limiting belief and freeing yourself.
Yes or no?
In a yes or no question, the Eight of Swords is usually read as a maybe: the answer depends on something not settled yet. Readers differ on some cards, so treat this as one common reading. You can ask a yes or no question and draw a card for it.
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More Swords cards
Ace of SwordsTwo of SwordsThree of SwordsFour of SwordsFive of SwordsSix of SwordsSeven of SwordsNine of SwordsTen of SwordsPage of SwordsKnight of SwordsQueen of SwordsKing of Swords
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