What does the card 8 of Swords mean in Tarot?

The 8 of Swords is the Minor Arcane that represents isolation, sadness and the feeling of uncertainty, being a negative card, but that brings a request for you to seek what is imprisoning you and get free.

This situation is being provoked internally, because this prison is mental and comes with a sense of paralysis and hopelessness. This can shake your judgment about situations experienced and your ability to judge.

The appearance of this card in the drawing is a request to change the focus and see this uncomfortable situation from a new perspective, allowing you to get out of this cycle of suffering and making it clear that the power is and always has been in your hands. Make your energy vibrate positively, so that the solution comes more easily to you.

To learn more about the 8 of Swords in Tarot, follow along with this article!

Fundamentals of the 8 of Swords

The 8 of Swords represents the mental ties, the imprisonment of feelings and the despair that emerges from this situation. The elements of the card make it clear that the imprisoned person could easily get free, if he was aware of his real state. Therefore, it is a warning to re-evaluate the situations that bother us.

Check out more about the basics of this card below!

History

The 8 of Swords is a Minor Arcana that tells the story of a person who remains blindfolded, tied and surrounded by swords, without realizing that it is up to her to seek her own liberation.

When this card appears in a drawing, it represents a warning and a request for you to see that the power is within you and that this isolation, whether created by trauma or not, is not a real loneliness, since this is a purely mental prison.

The 8 of Swords indicates that this leads you to make misguided and limited judgments about yourself and others, and it is important to recognize this process in order to have the chance to change.

Iconography

The 8 of Swords is composed by a tied woman, representing the paralysis felt by those who live the moment shown in this Arcane.

She is also blindfolded and surrounded by swords, unable to see that she is in an open space and that if she took a few steps, she could use the swords to cut her ropes. So at all times, this card reminds us that power is in our own hands.

There is also the presence of water, either running down the feet of the woman represented, or raining, highlighting the strong emotions surrounding this letter.

The suit of Swords

The suit of Swords brings as its main representation the mental plane, your personal intentions, your recurring thoughts and your realizations or arrests from it. It is the suit that speaks of our inner power and how we are dealing with it.

In its interpretation, it leads us to rethink our beliefs and mental cycles, asking for reflection, objectivity and clarity. These are cards that help us in the present moment and bring learning for the future.

Air element

The 8th of Swords represents the air element, characterized by its connection with the mind and intellect, attracting both the mastery of the mind, intelligence and good communication, as well as psychic suffering and insecurity when facing problems and misunderstandings.

Cards of this suit will help you to understand how you are doing in your social relationships, points that are suffocating you and what you need to do or what thoughts you need to cultivate to escape discouragement.

Meaning of the 8th of Swords card

Suffering and a sense of discouragement surround the 8th of Swords, warning you that you are experiencing stressful and exhausting situations, and feeling powerless in the face of them. It's important to break down each point to understand how this affects us.

So, understand the meanings of this Tarot card below!

Insulation

The 8 of Swords shows us a woman alone in the middle of an open field, and that's how we feel when it appears in the drawing. The 8 of Swords shows that we are going through a phase in which we feel alone, and even if it's a voluntary isolation, it hurts.

But isolation can also be illusory. Because this is a mind chart, it's possible that you're feeling left out, just out of neediness or unconsciously pushing others away. Stay tuned for the truth.

Powerlessness and discouragement

There is a red alert for mental weariness. When the 8th of Swords appears, there is a sign that powerlessness and discouragement are getting in the way of your daily life and that you must be feeling very tired of everything.

This is due to the overload of not knowing how to deal with this phase, especially if you feel alone. Try to rest your body and mind, so that you can decide what to do.

Prison

In the card, a woman surrounded by 8 Swords represents the mental prison that refers to this drawing. This prison, if well analyzed, doesn't seem that strong, leaving doubts about the reason to continue in it.

The mind can be strong enough to paralyze us through beliefs that aren't always true. So, it's important to try to recognize what our real moorings are.

Another possibility is that we continue in this situation out of sheer comfort or fear of leaving it and facing the new.

Suffering

Suffering is a fundamental part of the process of evolution, but it is not a place to dwell. The 8th of Swords shows us the anguish of staying and the paralysis when we think of leaving. Even though it is the suit of reason and thought, we are not using these artifices to achieve freedom.

It hurts to stay in an uncomfortable situation and not know how to get out of it, or to know that you can get out of it but don't want to for fear of missing it. The possibilities of issues that can trap us in this suffering are endless. Not being aware that the power to free ourselves is in our own hands causes this cycle to continue.

Need for overcoming

For the 8 of Swords, we are people of extraordinary strength who believe they are trapped by the sheer workings of their minds. Therefore, we are fully capable of overcoming, this need to overcome being one of the very requests of the card.

The person for whom this Arcane appears in draught needs to close cycles, worn-out relationships, stop dwelling on past problems and focus on the future and change.

8 of Swords in love

The 8 of Swords, in love, indicates that you have been feeling limited, afraid of feeling and showing or even unwilling to see that that romance is not working so well anymore. Therefore, let's check how this reading presents itself for those who are in a relationship and for those who are looking for love. Check it out!

For committed people

For committed people, the 8 of Swords indicates that something is not going well, that the relationship itself is hurting you or simply undergoing changes. In addition, it can also represent your possessiveness within the relationship.

This is also a warning for you to pay more attention to your partner and evaluate if your relationship is still solid.

For singles

Singles who encounter the 8 of Swords in the Tarot get the message that they have a great fear of commitment and therefore remain closed to love.

If you have come across this Arcane, there is a possibility that, in the drawing of the 8 of Swords, the card represents your anguish at being in love with someone who doesn't feel the same way. It is important to know when it is no longer worth investing in.

8 of Swords at work

The mind attracts what you think, and with the 8 of Swords related to work, it is no different. This card warns us that we are capable of achieving anything we want, all we have to do is unite effort with positive vibrations to have the world. The power is in our hands and depends on our actions.

To learn more, follow along with the reading below!

For employees

For employees, the 8 of Swords Tarot card states that this is the right time to reflect on whether you are satisfied in the professional field. In addition, this Arcane also echoes a request for you to vibrate ambitiously and to take advantage of the moment to attract that promotion or raise you so desire and know you deserve.

For unemployed persons

In relation to those who are unemployed, the 8 of Swords can represent hopelessness by constantly looking for a job without success.

Maybe the best opportunity is the one you are ignoring because you don't consider yourself capable of it. Try to develop yourself and take the blindfold off so you can see the world of chances that will arise when you start to believe in yourself more and vibrate wishes for prosperity.

Combinations with the 8 of Swords

Despite having meanings alone, the cards complement each other and allow the Tarot reading to be richer and more accurate. Within the combinations with the 8 of Swords there are those positive, indicating prosperity, and other negative, reaffirming their fears and addictions. Check each of them below!

Positive combinations

Some of the positive combinations of the 8th of Swords occur with the card The Justice, showing that if we believe we deserve something, we will achieve it. It can also occur with The King of Diamonds, announcing that there are new opportunities arising, especially at work.

Finally, another positive combination occurs with the card The Sun, asking you to allow yourself to be enlightened and to let the good energies come in.

Negative combinations

The combinations can be negative, if the 8 of Swords is together with cards like The Devil. In this junction, there is a message that represents the imprisonment with addictions and the difficulty of distancing oneself from them.

There is also a bad combination with The Hanged Man, where self sabotage and fear of doing something wrong paralyzes you, and with The Emperor, which says that you devote a lot of time in your life to idolizing people, but this influence is not always good, and can harm you.

A little more about the 8th of Swords

Depending on which position the Arcane 8 of Swords appears in the drawing, it can bring valuable information about various areas of our life. It asks us to pay attention to our health and to face the challenges that life proposes to us.

Below, we will see some more revelations that this card so full of meanings brings us. Follow along!

In health

The 8th of Swords asks you to look at yourself with more care, especially in the area of emotional health, since all this anguish leads to great psychological suffering.

Following this cycle of discouragement and suffering can lead to apathy, which prevents you from having the strength to get out of the conflicting situations that this card represents and harms all areas of your life.

Inverted card

The meaning of the inverted 8th of Swords will vary according to the drawing. In a positive scenario, it indicates that you are letting go of your fears and allowing yourself to move forward. You are opening up to new relationships or ending one that hasn't worked for years.

In the field of work, the reversed card has great potential to indicate that by letting go of fears, you have opened doors to new opportunities.

As for when the 8 of Swords appears reversed in a more negative draw, this can accentuate the original meaning of the card, showing that instead of moving forward, you are even more trapped and distressed by your fears.

In the love sphere, the negative reading asks you to re-evaluate your relationship. There's a good chance that all this frustration is generated by unresolved issues in the past.

Challenges

Even knowing all the characteristics of the 8 of Swords and all the attitudes we need to take to get out of this vibration, it is not easy to escape the traps of the mind. Therefore, we must also be aware of the challenges.

Although it may not seem like it, staying in a distressing situation is also staying in the comfort zone, since sometimes an already known evil is far less scary than trying to change the scenario.

Recognizing that something you love is hurting you is also a challenge, which is why it's so important that we do constant self-evaluation about what surrounds us.

Tips

The biggest tip in case you encounter the 8 of Swords is: vibrate the change. Don't be afraid of the new, because it's much better to face the unknown than to try to stay in a box that doesn't fit you anymore.

Also try to set aside a little time every day just for you. It can be just a few minutes, trying to welcome your feelings and reassessing everything that bothers you.

Understand that the main point is that the power is in your hands. All this distress and isolation comes from issues that our head tells us, but it's not always true. So, welcome yourself and try to connect with reality, so that you don't lose your essence.

Can the 8 of Swords signal a time of learning?

The 8th of Swords offers us the perfect time to face reality, change the course of our thoughts and escape toxic cycles, as well as to achieve great goals.

This card shows us that we need to reevaluate our actions, to see the best path to follow and leave behind what hurts or does not add.

One of the greatest learnings in this case is to constantly question yourself and always evaluate what you should take with you. This is the best way to grow and to free yourself from the chains of the mind.