8 of Swords
The 8 of Swords is the eighth numeral card of the Swords suit. It is associated with restriction, a feeling of being trapped, and limitations that are often more self-imposed than real.
Last reviewed: 2026-07-22
Historical fact
Before 1909, the 8 of Swords showed eight swords arranged with no scene. Pamela Colman Smith's illustration created the reference image: a blindfolded woman with her hands bound, surrounded by eight swords stuck in the ground around her, with a castle visible in the distance, on marshy ground.
Interpretation — Rider-Waite-Smith / Golden Dawn
In Waite's tradition, the 8 of Swords represents restriction, a sense of being trapped or powerless in a situation. The more established modern reading emphasizes that the limitation is often more psychological than real — the swords around the figure leave room to move, and it's the blindfold that keeps her from seeing the way out. Reversed, it commonly indicates the start of a release from that self-limitation.
Interpretation — Thoth (Aleister Crowley)
In the Thoth deck, this card carries the title 'Interference,' associated with Jupiter in Gemini. Crowley's reading shifts the focus away from the RWS image's self-limitation toward an obstruction coming from outside — confusion and blockage caused by scattered thoughts or by forces external to the individual.
Curiosities
- Art historians including Stuart R. Kaplan trace much of the visual inspiration for Pamela Colman Smith's Minor Arcana scenes to the Sola-Busca tarocchi, a 1491 Italian deck — the earliest known tarot to illustrate every numeral card with a narrative scene rather than plain suit symbols — which Smith is believed to have studied before designing the 1909 Rider-Waite-Smith deck.
- The Golden Dawn assigned each of the 36 numeral Minor Arcana cards (2 through 10, across all four suits) to one of the 36 decans of the zodiac — a system dividing each sign into three 10-degree segments that originated in ancient Egyptian astronomy and was later adopted by Hellenistic astrology, as in Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos.
This section presents one tradition's interpretation, not a verifiable fact.
Frequently asked questions
- Does the 8 of Swords mean someone is truly trapped with no way out?
- The most accepted reading is that the limitation is largely self-imposed or psychological — the card usually suggests there is more room to maneuver than it first appears.
- What is the difference between the RWS and Thoth readings of the 8 of Swords?
- The RWS reading emphasizes self-limitation — a confinement sustained by the figure's own perception. The Thoth reading, under the title 'Interference,' emphasizes more of a blockage coming from outside or from scattered thoughts.
Sources
- Michael Dummett. The Game of Tarot: From Ferrara to Salt Lake City (1980).
- Arthur Edward Waite. The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910).
- Aleister Crowley. The Book of Thoth (1944).
- Stuart R. Kaplan. The Encyclopedia of Tarot (1978).