Eight of Swords
Secret whisperBound and blindfolded among the swords — yet the way out is open.
Upright meaning
Upright keywordsrestriction, self-imprisonment, victim mindset, limitation
You feel trapped, but many of the limits are in your head. Change the story you tell yourself and you will find the way out.
Reversed meaning
Reversed keywordsself-acceptance, freedom, new perspective, release
You are freeing yourself from limiting beliefs. Keep walking; the bonds are falling away.
About the suit of Swords
Swords belong to Air: thought, truth, words, decisions and conflict. They cut both ways — bringing clarity, and the pain that clarity can cost.
Reading the Eights of the tarot
Eights move: progress, mastery through effort, and change of direction.
In Waite’s own words (1910)
From A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, public domain. Original English text.
Divinatory meaning: Bad news, violent chagrin, crisis, censure, power in trammels, conflict, calumny; also sickness.
Reversed: Disquiet, difficulty, opposition, accident, treachery; what is unforeseen; fatality.
The picture
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.
