MINOR ARCANA

Eight of Swords Tarot Meanings

I think the Eight of Swords is one of my favourite swords cards, it may not seem like a card that can radiate a huge amount of positivity, but it can be a really freeing card to get in your spread. The Eight of Swords refers to our mental structure, our beliefs, and a secure sense of self. It’s that feeling of being comfortable and confident in what we have to say and what we believe to be true.

When we get the Eight of Swords it can show us that we’re reaching or have reached a place where we are able to stand firm in our own beliefs. This could refer to a specific topic that you’re being challenged on or a goal that you have. You’re not being influenced by outside noise, you’re able to create a laser focus and stand your ground.

Eight of Swords Tarot Meanings Framework

Eight of Swords Upright Meanings

The Eight of Swords in the upright position can indicate a need to build some internal trust and be confident in your own mindset. If you’re being heavily influenced by external sources, it can be a sign that you need to find a way to take back your mental power. Some of the key meanings of the Eight of Swords are:

Powerless
Self-honesty
Listening to self
Strong mindsets
Self-assurance

If we look at the artwork on the Rider Waite-Smith Tarot deck, we see a figure who is bound and blindfolded surrounded by swords. Often people will read this as a card that’s very constricting and limiting when in fact it’s a card that encourages you to break out of the prison you have created for yourself. It’s a key and all you have to do is find the lock that it fits.

Eight of Swords Reversed Meanings

In the reversed position, the Eight of Swords takes this card that is already very internally focused and enhances it. It becomes an even more forceful push to take control and responsibility for what you say and think. Some of the main reversed meanings of the Eight of Swords are:

Reclaiming
Enlightenment
Open-minded
Releasing
New perspective

The reversed meanings of the Eight of Swords are more like a mental breakthrough, a bursting free of the constraints that we currently find ourselves. Often it includes challenging what we already thought we knew and opening ourselves up to continuous development and learning.

Reading Eight of Swords in a Tarot Spread

When the Eight of Swords shows up in your spread, pay close attention to its position as this will tell you whether you’re currently in the energy, or if it’s an energy that you need. It is a card that can be pretty confusing without any context, but the Eight of Swords is generally a positive one. It is a card that shows up for you, not to mess you up or derail you. It wants what’s best for you.

Eight of Swords as An Invitation

The Eight of Swords is an invitation to reach in and find solidarity with your sense of self. It asks you to take a look at your mindsets, belief systems and communication and find your way to trusting those things completely. Stop doubting your mind and start being your own support system.

For Eight of Swords, this invitation could be the following:

An invitation to start trusting yourself
An invitation to block out external noise and follow what you think is right
An invitation to review limiting beliefs and how you could start to break through them
An invitation to think about how you could release yourself from stagnant thought patterns

Eight of Swords as Sage Advice

As advice, the Eight of Swords shows up to show us that we have more wisdom than we often give ourselves credit for. It gives us guidance about finding our feet as an individual and about finding awareness as to when we are being influenced by others or external energies.

Some advice Eight of Swords may offer is:

Don’t ignore yourself in favour of external opinions
Approach the world with an open mind, but remember to trust what you know in the present
Sometimes when we feel powerless, we are the ones that have taken our own power away
Always check in with your current mindset to make sure it’s not keeping you from progressing

Eight of Swords as a Lesson

The Eight of Swords has some harsh lessons to offer up and they are lessons that will take a lot of work. It’s not a card that can be solved and moved on from, it is a card that we need to constantly check in with and re-align ourselves with its core energy.

Some lessons that Eight of Swords may offer you are:

We can only free ourselves if we are being completely honest with ourselves
The path to enlightenment can only be found by turning inwards
When you trust yourself completely it is much easier to decide what to do to move forwards
If we’re to continue to develop as humans, we have to accept that we will always be learning and expanding our awareness and knowledge

Eight of Swords as a Redirection

Often when the Eight of Swords shows up as a re-direction, we are asked to stop focusing on what is happening in the outside world and focus our care and attention on our internal world. We can become overwhelmed by the energy that surrounds us and often that clouds our ability to think clearly. If you’ve got the Eight of Swords in this context, you’re trying to focus on too much all at once.

As a redirection, Eight of Swords could symbolise a need to:

Take a look at external things that may be influencing you or throwing you off
Ignore the opinions of others and start to do what you think is best
Build strong mindsets that will form the foundation of your sense of self as you move forwards on your journey
Be more honest with yourself about what you want and around your individual beliefs

Swords

The Swords refer to our daily forms of communication, the thoughts that run idly through our heads and all the ideas that emerge from out of the blue.

With the Eight of Swords, we have so much of this sword energy that we have to make the decision what needs our focus and what other things need to take a backseat for a while. The best way to do that is to block out external influences and focus on the inner compass.

Air

The Swords correspond with the element of air and in the Eight of Swords we see this in the need to simply feel our way to an answer, rather than expecting the answer to be right in front of us.

It’s a bit like how the calmest point within a tornado is the centre. We have to fight to get to that centre point so we can close our eyes, find calm in the storm and hone our ability to focus on the things that should take highest priority.

Eights

In numerology, the number eight is a number that offers long-term stability. With the number four we get a great place to press pause and take a breath before carrying on. In the number eight that energy is doubled, offering us a much larger stable foundation on which to build on.

For the Eight of Swords, this refers to long-term mental stability. It can look like the creation of coping mechanisms or ways of dealing with mental stresses.