Eight of Swords — Interference is a card of the Minor Arcana, suit of Swords in the Thoth Tarot. In a reading it speaks of interference, obstacle, indecision and scatter. In the Golden Dawn system it corresponds to the sephirah Hod, the element Air and Jupiter in Gemini in astrology.
interference · obstacle · indecision · scatter · restriction
What does Eight of Swords mean?
Identify the real interference, separating it from the imagined ones, and concentrate your forces on the essential.
Everyday meaning
Interference, unexpected obstacles, impediments that hold back action. It points to situations blocked by details, by outside people, or by an excess of options and scruples.
Psychological meaning
The distracted, overloaded mind, lost in alternatives and doubts until it can no longer move. Often the cage is made of your own thoughts.
Initiatic meaning
Air in Hod, intellectual Splendour, with Jupiter in Gemini, his sign of detriment, in the first decan: Jupiterian benevolence fragments into Mercurial multiplicity. Interference is the will scattering in a thousand directions for lack of a centre.
The shadow side
Ill-dignified, it signals confusion, paralysis, pettiness, an inability to see the whole.
Eight of Swords reversed
The Thoth Tarot is traditionally read without reversed cards: the reader judges from the cards around it whether a card is well or ill dignified. This is its ill-dignified or blocked reading:
Obstacles that begin to dissolve; or blocks that worsen because you lack the courage to choose.
Eight of Swords in love, work and spirit
In love
Outside interference, doubts, misunderstandings; too many words and too little clarity.
At work and career
Bureaucracy, setbacks, small errors that slow things down; simplifying helps.
In spiritual practice
Freeing the mind of the superfluous to find a single centre again.
Kabbalah, astrology and the Hebrew letter of Eight of Swords
Hod · Air · Jupiter in Gemini
Crowley on Eight of Swords
Crowley crosses two long vertical swords with six short swords of different shapes and cultures: a mind disturbed by too many heterogeneous interferences.
Frequently asked questions
What does Eight of Swords mean in the Thoth Tarot?
Identify the real interference, separating it from the imagined ones, and concentrate your forces on the essential.
What does Eight of Swords mean in love?
Outside interference, doubts, misunderstandings; too many words and too little clarity.
What does Eight of Swords mean for work and career?
Bureaucracy, setbacks, small errors that slow things down; simplifying helps.
What does Eight of Swords mean reversed?
The Thoth Tarot is traditionally read without reversed cards: the reader judges from the cards around it whether a card is well or ill dignified. This is its ill-dignified or blocked reading: Obstacles that begin to dissolve; or blocks that worsen because you lack the courage to choose.
What are the Kabbalah and astrology correspondences of Eight of Swords?
In the Golden Dawn system Eight of Swords corresponds to the sephirah Hod, the element Air and Jupiter in Gemini in astrology.
