About these meanings: the traditional descriptions and meanings on this public reference page are taken from material associated with the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot deck. Some of the language is historical, severe, or old-fashioned. Slogit Tarot modernises this terminology and greatly expands the meanings, examples and interpretations inside the Arcana Nexus learning course.

Minor Arcana · Swords

Eight of Swords

Card Code S8

Suit Swords

Rank Eight

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Description & Symbolism

Eight of Swords

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.

Divinatory Meaning

Upright

Bad news, violent chagrin, crisis, censure, power in trammels, conflict, calumny; also sickness.

For a woman, scandal spread in her respect.

Reversed Meaning

Reversed

Disquiet, difficulty, opposition, accident, treachery; what is unforeseen; fatality.

Departure of a relative.