Seven of Swords
Seven of Épées (Tarot de Marseille) · Lord of Unstable Effort (Golden Dawn) · Futility (Thoth)
The Seven of Swords shows a man slipping away from a camp with an armful of blades, a card of strategy and stealth that can mean cleverness or deceit.
Upright strategy · stealth · deception · evasion · acting alone · cunning
Reversed confession · conscience · getting caught · returning what was taken · self-deception · change of plan
- Astrology
- Moon in Aquarius (third decan)
- Element
- Air
- Number
- 7
- Golden Dawn title
- Lord of Unstable Effort
- Yes or no
- No
Upright
Upright, the Seven of Swords is the card of the stratagem. Something is being done quietly, cleverly, and not quite openly. In the Waite–Smith tradition this can be a legitimate tactic, such as avoiding a fight one cannot win, or it can be theft, evasion and dishonesty. Readers often say that the card shows a plan that may only half succeed: the man carries five swords but leaves two behind.
In love, it is frequently read as secrecy, from a harmless surprise to concealment or infidelity, or as someone keeping their real feelings to themselves.
At work and with money it can describe diplomacy, careful positioning or working around obstacles, but also office intrigue, cutting corners and being too clever by half. Contracts deserve a second reading.
The advice the card gives is to be strategic without being deceptive, and to ask honestly who would be hurt if the plan came to light.
Reversed
Reversed, the Seven of Swords is often taken to mean that a secret comes out. Someone confesses, is caught, or decides to return what they took. Readers also use it for self-deception: the person trying to outwit others is mainly fooling themselves. Another reading sees a plan abandoned before it is carried out.
Reversed meanings are optional, and many readers interpret all cards upright, letting the neighbouring cards show whether the stratagem is clever or dishonest. When reversals are used, this one generally points toward conscience and candour.
The image
Pamela Colman Smith drew a man tiptoeing away from a military camp, a cluster of striped tents with pennants in the background. He carries five swords bundled in his arms by their blades and looks back over his shoulder with an expression often described as sly or satisfied. Two swords remain upright in the ground behind him. In the far distance a few small figures stand near the tents, apparently unaware of him. The sky is a flat yellow, as in several of Smith's scenes.
History
Before Smith's illustrated minor arcana of 1909, decks such as the Tarot de Marseille showed the Seven of Swords as curved blades with one straight sword through the centre, without any figures. The camp scene was new and has become one of the most recognised images in the Rider–Waite–Smith deck. Waite's 1910 interpretation is surprisingly mild: design, attempt, wish, hope and confidence, but also quarrelling, a plan that may fail and annoyance; reversed, good advice, counsel, instruction, slander and babbling. The modern emphasis on theft and deception derives more from the picture than from the older lists.
Symbolism
Sevens fall on Netzach, the sefirah of Venus and of feeling, and in the Golden Dawn system they often show a weakening or wavering of the suit's force. Here the mind's power is scattered into cunning. The two swords left behind are commonly read as the part of a plan that cannot be carried off, and the turned head as a guilty or wary conscience.
The decan is the third of Aquarius, ruled by the Moon, and the Golden Dawn title is "Lord of Unstable Effort". The changeable Moon in an intellectual sign matches the card's sense of fluctuating aims and half-measures. Crowley titled it "Futility", seeing in it a compromise that cannot succeed.
In a reading
Readers often ask whether the querent is the one slipping away or the one being deceived. Next to the Moon it intensifies the theme of hidden matters; with the Page of Swords, of spying or gossip; with Justice, of exposure and accountability. In an advice position it may recommend tact and strategy; in an outcome position it can suggest partial success or a solution that leaves something unfinished. For the suit's place in the Golden Dawn decan scheme, see the minor arcana.
Sources and further reading
- The Pictorial Key to the Tarot — A. E. Waite, 1910
- The Book of Thoth — Aleister Crowley, 1944
- The Golden Dawn — Israel Regardie, 1937
- Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom — Rachel Pollack, 1980