Seven of Swords
The seven of swords in the tarot's Minor Arcana: a man carrying five swords away from a camp, two left stuck in the ground. A. E. Waite read it as design, attempt, hope, and a plan that may fail.
Meaning
Waite describes the card: "A man in the act of carrying away five swords rapidly; the two others of the card remain stuck in the ground. A camp is close at hand."
What does the Seven of Swords mean?
Waite's meanings are "design, attempt, wish, hope, confidence; also quarrelling, a plan that may fail, annoyance. The design is uncertain in its import, because the significations are widely at variance with each other"; reversed, "good advice, counsel, instruction, slander, babbling". His list of additional meanings adds "dark girl; a good card; it promises a country life after a competence has been secured", and reversed, "good advice, probably neglected".
In older decks
In Italian packs the suit is spade, swords: the earliest suit marks, the British Museum's catalogue of 1876 records, were coppe, danari, bastoni and spade, "cups, money, clubs, and swords". Papus reads it as "success assured to the enemy".
See also
The Fool, The Magician, The High Priestess, The Empress, The Emperor, The Hierophant.
Sources
- The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, by A. E. Waite, William Rider & Son, London, 1910 (the sacred-texts.com transcription, on the Internet Archive), The Lesser Arcana; Some Additional Meanings of the Lesser Arcana
- The Tarot of the Bohemians, by Papus, Chapman & Hall, London, 1896, translated by A. P. Morton (scan on the Internet Archive), The Divining Tarot, second lesson: the minor arcana
- A Descriptive Catalogue of Playing and Other Cards in the British Museum, by W. H. Willshire, Trustees of the British Museum, London, 1876 (scan on the Internet Archive), General history: the marks of the suits
Last reviewed September 28, 2026 by Rory Hansen. How we research