Eight of Swords

Eight of Swords

Element: Air

Imagery: A blindfolded figure bound and surrounded by swords.

General Themes: Mental restriction, limiting beliefs, self-imposed barriers.

Eight of Swords Upright

This card reminds me of a saying a psychologist friend once told me when it comes to dealing with certain things: the good news is that it’s all in your head. The bad news is that it’s all in your head. The figure in the card is surrounded by swords…and yet she can easily escape her prison if she just takes off the blindfold and sees the opening before her and a sanctuary in the distance. The Eight of Swords begs you not to let fear trap you.

You have more agency than you think. Take a breath and locate the origin of your fear. You might be feeling trapped in your head or cycling through old trauma loops. Figure out what triggered the sensation and then proceed from there. Once you know what is causing the panic, it’s easier to map a way forward.

Don’t let what’s going on in your head keep you trapped in negative cycles. Give yourself permission to let go of old scripts and move past the mental block you’ve created. As with many cards in the tarot, this one reminds you that a fresh perspective is key to moving forward.

Eight of Swords Reversed

This reversal echoes the Seven of Swords reversed, in that you want to look for unexpected solutions to your problems. You’re feeling trapped, which is why your vision feels narrow and your options limited.

Part of the problem when this card appears is that your inner critic is louder than the expansive, playful voice that can get you out of this mess. Get out of your head—and your own way! Remember that the critic only appears when self-doubt flares up, and it only strengthens when you feed that voice. So turn your gaze toward a meaningful solution, even something as simple as allowing yourself to move out of the ring of swords.

We can hold on to outmoded beliefs because they are familiar and feel safe. Dare to liberate yourself through a change in perspective.

The Bruja’s Guide to Tarot is the divination sister to the scholarly The Bruja Professor, a witchy take on literature, the occult & pop culture, and Enchantment Learning & Living, an inspirational blog celebrating life’s simple pleasures, everyday mysticism, and delectable recipes that are guaranteed to stir the kitchen witch in you.

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Seven of Swords

Element: Air

Imagery: A figure sneaks away carrying swords from a camp.

General Themes: Strategy, secrecy, avoidance, cleverness.

Seven of Swords Upright

This card has a lot of trickster energy! Just look at the figure sneaking away with a stash of swords, glad to be free of whatever they’ve just left. It’s time to leave a tricky situation behind. Get out while you can and preferably while others are distracted. You don’t want to create a scene or make an issue of your departure. Just disappear so you don’t get stuck in the muck.

The Seven of Swords is about being cunning. Force won’t work in this instance, so be smart about what you’re about to do next, so things don’t backfire. It’s time to start a new chapter, and the only way to do that is to out-think your opponent or the thing that’s trying to keep you stuck in the past. Don’t blab about your new ideas or ventures—just quietly begin your next move.

Seven of Swords Reversed

This card, in reverse, is more about thinking outside the box. In fact, forget there is a box at all! The situation makes you feel trapped. Imagine an alternate way forward — you aren’t stuck, you just need to shift your perspective.

If this card were to be defined in one word, it would be cleverness. Where can you innovate? Rethink your strategy? Outsmart brawn? Given the trickster energy of the Seven of Swords, this reversal is also an invitation to get playful and flexible with your thinking. Look for creative solutions and don’t be afraid to make an unconventional move.

Oppressive systems want us to be inflexible, with narrow visions. Flex your imaginative skills and find the loophole in your current situation.

The Bruja’s Guide to Tarot is the divination sister to the scholarly The Bruja Professor, a witchy take on literature, the occult & pop culture, and Enchantment Learning & Living, an inspirational blog celebrating life’s simple pleasures, everyday mysticism, and delectable recipes that are guaranteed to stir the kitchen witch in you.

If you enjoyed what you just read and believe that true magic is in the everyday…and good conversations with the tarot, subscribe to my newsletter below for regular doses of enchantment. Want even more inspiration? Follow me on Instagram and Facebook. Here’s to a magical life!

Six of Swords

Element: Air

Imagery: Figures travel across water toward a distant shore, swords upright in front of them.

General Themes: Transition, relief, mental passage, leaving turmoil behind.

Six of Swords Upright

This card can feel a little heavy. You might pull this when you’re in the middle of a transition, literal or energetic. As with many Swords cards, it asks you to focus on what’s next. That might feel hard to do, given the swords blocking your view. Just keep going.

Time to leave the familiar behind and risk the journey into the unknown. You’re not quite ready to let go of the ideas and energies holding you back (like those swords clouding your vision), but you will be soon. Then comes the relief.

Six of Swords Reversed

This reversal points to a blockage. Perhaps you are afraid to move forward into the unknown, or life seems to be holding you in place. In either case, the healthiest thing to do right now is to shake off stagnation and lean into change.

Surrender. Lay down your swords. Flow with life. Leave old baggage in the past. More often than not, this is about fundamentally changing the way you think. Let go of outdated ideas and limiting beliefs. Learn to see the world through a new lens—better ideas will follow.

The Bruja’s Guide to Tarot is the divination sister to the scholarly The Bruja Professor, a witchy take on literature, the occult & pop culture, and Enchantment Learning & Living, an inspirational blog celebrating life’s simple pleasures, everyday mysticism, and delectable recipes that are guaranteed to stir the kitchen witch in you.

If you enjoyed what you just read and believe that true magic is in the everyday…and good conversations with the tarot, subscribe to my newsletter below for regular doses of enchantment. Want even more inspiration? Follow me on Instagram and Facebook. Here’s to a magical life!

Five of Swords

Element: Air

Imagery: A figure gathers swords as others walk away defeated.

General Themes: Hollow victory, conflict.

Five of Swords Upright

Like the majority of the Fives in their upright form, this is about facing grim realities. The thing you were fighting tooth and nail for is not meant to be yours. It’s time to cut your losses and move on. There are some battles you can’t win, and the only way through this situation is by surrender.

You can waste a lot of time trying to make things work, but it’s better to let go and move on. Look to the future and remember that there are better ways of doing things that don’t require you to waste time or energy on issues that will never move forward.

Sometimes this card comes around when you do win—only the victory feels hollow. What were you fighting so hard for again, and why? Rethink your goals and shift your perspective. Don’t grasp for something that comes at too high a cost. It’s never worth it. Instead, withdraw and look for a smoother way forward.

Five of Swords Reversed

Like its upright form, the reversed Five of Swords signals that you’re in the middle of a battle you can’t win. The only thing you can do to maintain your dignity and remaining energy is to walk away. Find your equilibrium. Remember who you were before this ordeal took over your life.

The best way to resolve this conflict is to let it go and move on with your life. Broaden your horizons and look for the bigger message. When things get too hard, it can sometimes be a sign from the universe that you are moving in the wrong direction. Our egos want to push back against healthy limits, which isn’t good for us in the long run. The best way to restore equilibrium is to get grounded and listen to this message from life. Where does it want you to go instead? The answer is in the path that restores inner harmony.

The Bruja’s Guide to Tarot is the divination sister to the scholarly The Bruja Professor, a witchy take on literature, the occult & pop culture, and Enchantment Learning & Living, an inspirational blog celebrating life’s simple pleasures, everyday mysticism, and delectable recipes that are guaranteed to stir the kitchen witch in you.

If you enjoyed what you just read and believe that true magic is in the everyday…and good conversations with the tarot, subscribe to my newsletter below for regular doses of enchantment. Want even more inspiration? Follow me on Instagram and Facebook. Here’s to a magical life!

Four of Swords

Element: Air

Imagery: A figure lies in repose within a church; three swords hang above, one rests below.

General Themes: Rest, recovery, mental stillness, sanctuary.

Four of Swords Upright

I call this the radical self-care card of the deck. It’s an invitation to enjoy guilt-free self-care and self-love. It’s okay to take time for yourself. We live in a world that values extroversion and external markers of growth, so it can feel strange to turn inward and focus on healing—two things which are hard to quantify or explain in the context of the status quo.

This is a time to examine your life and release anything that is causing undue stress, or to find a way to not let a stressful situation hijack your nervous system. The card indicates that the only solution right now is to slow down and tend your inner life.

Remember: sometimes the best thing you can do is practice self-care. All healthy changes come from within first. As that old witchy saying goes: as within, so without.

Four of Swords Reversed

This card is a major caution sign! Similar to its upright form, the reversal asks you to practice self-care. Only here, it is BEGGING you to slow down and take care of yourself OR ELSE. Seriously. If you don’t slow down now, life will make you stop—and never in the way you want it to.

Reversed, this isn’t just a card about radical self-care but intensive rest. Think of your soul as a hospital patient or someone who is on enforced bedrest. You need to recharge and allow your system to heal. Period. Everything else comes after that.

Your soul will thank you.

Don’t be afraid to protect your solitude and interiority here. In fact, doing so is a necessary part of healing. Take your self-care as seriously as you do everything else. OR ELSE.

The Bruja’s Guide to Tarot is the divination sister to the scholarly The Bruja Professor, a witchy take on literature, the occult & pop culture, and Enchantment Learning & Living, an inspirational blog celebrating life’s simple pleasures, everyday mysticism, and delectable recipes that are guaranteed to stir the kitchen witch in you.

If you enjoyed what you just read and believe that true magic is in the everyday…and good conversations with the tarot, subscribe to my newsletter below for regular doses of enchantment. Want even more inspiration? Follow me on Instagram and Facebook. Here’s to a magical life!

Three of Swords

Element: Air

Imagery: A heart pierced by three swords beneath storm clouds.

General Themes: Painful clarity, grief, truth that wounds but has the potential to liberate.

Three of Swords Upright

This card speaks of tremendous heartbreak. And this isn’t the type of heartbreak that magically goes away. In fact, when we talk about healing from heartbreak, we seldom discuss the fundamental truth of this kind of pain: healing looks a lot like like learning to live with the emotional scarring. In other words, we don’t have to forget the pain, but we have to learn to let our heart grow around the wound.

At its most empowering, the Three of Swords is an invitation to embody relational expansiveness. Healing is honoring the history you lived through and not letting it shut you down emotionally.

Embodied feeling offers transcendence. It might sound counterintuitive, but feeling what you need to feel allows you to free yourself from those heavy emotions. As tough as this card is, at its heart (pun intended), it’s about remaining expansive and open even when feelings are difficult. Those difficult feelings remind you that you’re human.

Three of Swords Reversed

Upright, this card explores how to survive serious heartbreak. Reversed, it symbolizes a profound release of pain. The three swords slide out of the upside-down heart, suggesting an effortlessness to this movement, which often happens after time, space, and processing have done their work. It doesn’t mean that you will never feel the pain of that heartbreak again, only that it no longer controls your life.

This card reversed ushers in a period of emotional recovery. Embrace the process. Go slow. Be quiet. Allow yourself to recharge and don’t feel the need to rush out of this liminal space.

It’s also important during this time to resist the temptation to indulge in negative thinking. That only reopens the wounds. Let go, move on, and feel the relief that comes from letting past pain stay in the past.

Move forward with emotional clarity and an open heart.

The Bruja’s Guide to Tarot is the divination sister to the scholarly The Bruja Professor, a witchy take on literature, the occult & pop culture, and Enchantment Learning & Living, an inspirational blog celebrating life’s simple pleasures, everyday mysticism, and delectable recipes that are guaranteed to stir the kitchen witch in you.

If you enjoyed what you just read and believe that true magic is in the everyday…and good conversations with the tarot, subscribe to my newsletter below for regular doses of enchantment. Want even more inspiration? Follow me on Instagram and Facebook. Here’s to a magical life!

Two of Swords

Element: Air

Imagery: A blindfolded figure holds crossed swords. The sea and the moon are behind her.

General themes: Stalemate, avoidance, suspended judgment.

Two of Swords Upright

This is a card about feeling stuck in limbo. The figure can’t see—they are literally blindfolded—and so, seem unable to make a clear decision. This could be for many reasons. Either you don’t have all the information you need, so the path forward seems unclear, or your options appear equally good (or bad). You could also have some avoidance issues! There is something about this situation that makes you hesitant to act.

The most important thing is to get moving, however hard it may seem. The only wrong choice is no choice. If your hesitation stems from a lack of information, investigate a little more—your feelings, the situation, both sides of the equation. You will need a balance of logic and feeling for this, as echoed by the sea and land in the background of this image.

In the end, life is messy. There are no easy choices, so do your best and keep moving forward.

Two of Swords Reversed

Although sword cards reflect the intellectual realm, this card asks you to tap into your intuition. Rather than make a decision right this minute, embrace this liminal space. This is fertile ground to look to your inner guild and recenter yourself. 

Something is clouding your judgment, so pull back and clear your head before you make any decisions. Trusting your gut can feel messy, but it will lead to better results in the long run here. 

This card might appear when you are in a difficult situation with seemingly no resolution, or when you feel burned out or overloaded. That’s why it’s important to pull back and take stock of things. 

But don’t stay in the liminal space too long. Like its upright form, this card, reversed, ultimately asks you to clear your mind so you can move forward with clarity. 

The Bruja’s Guide to Tarot is the divination sister to the scholarly The Bruja Professor, a witchy take on literature, the occult & pop culture, and Enchantment Learning & Living, an inspirational blog celebrating life’s simple pleasures, everyday mysticism, and delectable recipes that are guaranteed to stir the kitchen witch in you.

If you enjoyed what you just read and believe that true magic is in the everyday…and good conversations with the tarot, subscribe to my newsletter below for regular doses of enchantment. Want even more inspiration? Follow me on Instagram and Facebook. Here’s to a magical life!

Ace of Swords

Element: Air

Imagery: A sword stands upright, crowned with victory wreaths. A mountain terrain is in the background.

General themes: Truth, clarity, ethical decision.

Ace of Swords Upright

The Ace of Swords celebrates new insights and great ideas. The Swords are about the intellect and a clear mind, so whatever you’re thinking about, you’ve got the right idea. A bright idea, in fact!

Expect a creative breakthrough, a chance to turn a bright idea into a reality, or an unexpected insight that changes your perspective on a tricky situation. This card is all about mental clarity—trust what your mind is telling you here, not your heart.

Lastly, The Ace of Swords Upright asks you to have faith in your abilities. You might not feel quite confident yet, but an Ace is always a promise to trust your ideas as they will bear fruit. It’s easy to second-guess yourself or overthink a situation to death. Trust yourself. 

Ace of Swords Reversed

When this card appears reversed, it invites you to take a step back and clear your head. You might be too close to a situation to see it clearly or your emotions are clouding your judgement. Take your time and be deliberate about your next step. If something about this situation makes you feel rushed, walk away.

Another way to read this reversal is that you have new ideas percolating. You might not be ready to voice them yet or birth them into the world, but they’re definitely worth looking at. Nurture and protect them during this gestation period. You’ll know when it’s time to take action.

The Bruja’s Guide to Tarot is the divination sister to the scholarly The Bruja Professor, a witchy take on literature, the occult & pop culture, and Enchantment Learning & Living, an inspirational blog celebrating life’s simple pleasures, everyday mysticism, and delectable recipes that are guaranteed to stir the kitchen witch in you.

If you enjoyed what you just read and believe that true magic is in the everyday…and good conversations with the tarot, subscribe to my newsletter below for regular doses of enchantment. Want even more inspiration? Follow me on Instagram and Facebook. Here’s to a magical life!