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's description of the picture: "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, one of the four suit marks the British Museum's catalogue of 1876 gives for the earliest cards. Papus reads it as "Success assured to the enemy."
Read next
- Next in Tarot cardsEight of SwordsThe eight of swords in the tarot's Minor Arcana: a woman bound and blindfolded among eight swords. A. E. Waite read it as bad news, crisis and conflict.
- The same shape in Christian symbolsINRIINRI are the initials of the Latin for “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews”, the charge the Gospel of John says Pilate had fixed to Christ’s cross. Crucifixes in the Western churches show the four letters on a small board above his head.
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
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols formed from crosses, letters and numbers or squares and rectangles.
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed September 30, 2026. How we research
Added . Last updated .