Rider-Waite

In the Eight of Wands, fire is no longer conjoined with the ideas of combustion and destruction. It represents energy in its most exalted and tenuous sense; this suggests such forms thereof as the electric current; one might almost say pure light in the material sense of that word.
Crowley saw this card as representing high energy physics.

Lord of Swiftness
Short-lived perfection; an uncovering of hidden motives or aspects of the affair at hand; secrecy with a tendency toward stubbornness; plots. Rapid thought and action.

Understanding, Observation, Direction.
Reversed
Quarrels, Intestine, disputes, Discord.

Countryside, Field, Plain, Agriculture, Cultivation, Plowing, Landed Property, Real Estate, Solid, Farm, Garden, Orchard, Meadow, Woods, Grove, Foliage, Pleasure, Divertissement, Amusement, Pastime, Relaxation, Festivities, Peace, Calm, Tranquillity, Innocence, Country Living. Forest, Small Valley, Mountain, War Camp.

Reversed
Domestic Dispute, Examination, Reasoning, Discord. Regrets, Remorse, Repent, Internal Trouble, Indecision, Uncertainty, Inconceivable, Incomprehensible, Doubt, Scruple, Troubled Conscience.

TRADITION
Examination, interior disputes, misunderstanding, regrets, interior agitation, scruples, doubt, repentance, etc. But on the other hand it is brought into connection with everything that has to do with country life, the fields, gardens, woods, etc. Also: pleasure, amusement, enjoyment, recreation. Quite apart from all this: an express messenger, the arrows of love or the arrows of jealousy. “Great haste, great hope, speed towards an end, which promises assured felicity.”

CONCLUSION
Examination, interrogation, internal or inner conceptions, knowledge and disputes; misgivings, doubt and sometimes misunderstandings; quick response, reaction, and answer to unspoken words or meanings. The sensation of pleasure and pain, but at the same time the knowledge and the occasion to avoid both or to get the one and avoid the other. Life at or on the sea; sailors and fishermen. Searchers for the hidden side of things, students of occultism. Poetry, music and sculpture. Secret message; hidden meaning; sex questions. Private interview or rendez-vous. Bad weather.