Seven of Swords tarot card meaning: upright, reversed and symbols

The Seven of Swords shows a man tiptoeing away from a camp, carrying five swords in his arms and glancing back over his shoulder. Two swords are left stuck in the ground behind him. It is a card of strategy, secrets and getting away with something. This page covers what the Seven of Swords means upright and reversed, the symbols in the 1909 card and how to read it honestly.

At a glance

• Upright keywords: deception, trickery, strategy
• Reversed keywords: confession, regret, getting caught
• Number: 7 in the suit of Swords
• Suit and element: Swords, Air Later tradition
• Astrology: Moon in Aquarius Later tradition
• Yes or no: No Modern

The element and the planet in a sign (one of the 36 ten-degree slices of the zodiac called decans) come from the Golden Dawn system of the 1880s and 1890s, not from the first tarot decks. The yes or no lean is a modern reading habit. Use these layers if they help you remember the card, and skip them if they get in the way.

The card: what Pamela Colman Smith drew

Waite wrote: “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.”

Tiptoeing

He walks on his toes, trying not to be heard. Whatever he is doing, he does not want to be seen.

The look back

He glances over his shoulder, half smiling. He may be pleased with his plan, or nervous about being caught.

Two swords left

He cannot carry everything. Strategies that rely on secrecy often leave something important behind.

Upright meaning

Upright, the Seven of Swords concerns strategy in the shadows: stealth, half-truths, clever exits or taking what is not freely given. Sometimes the card advises tact and privacy. Sometimes it warns that someone is acting in bad faith, and that someone may be you.

Ask honestly who is carrying the swords. If you need to protect yourself, quiet strategy is fine. If you are cutting corners, the card asks whether it is worth it. If you suspect someone else, check facts before you accuse.

Reversed meaning

Reversed, the Seven of Swords can show confession, regret or getting caught. Secrets come out. It can also mean you stop trying to do everything alone and ask for help.

If you owe someone the truth, tell it. If a truth comes out about someone else, decide calmly what it changes.

Reversals are optional. Many readers never use them and read every card upright, and that is a complete way to read. If you do use them, decide before you shuffle what a reversed card will mean for you, and keep to that choice for the whole reading.

In love, work and spirituality

Love

Upright, secrets, half-truths or keeping your options open. Reversed, a confession or a secret revealed.

Work and money

Office politics, a clever workaround or someone taking credit. Reversed, being found out or coming clean.

Spirituality

Keeping your practice private for your own safety, which is fine. Reversed, no longer needing to hide.

As feelings

As someone’s feelings, the Seven of Swords shows guardedness or something unsaid. They may be holding back part of the story.

The Seven of Swords as past, present, future and advice

• Past: A secret or a strategy shaped this situation.
• Present: Something is not being said. Look closely.
• Future: A clever move, or a deception, may come up.
• Advice: Be strategic, and stay honest.

A Minor Arcana card usually describes the everyday texture of a situation: a mood, a conversation, a task or a step. If the Seven of Swords appears next to a Major Arcana card, let the Major name the big theme and let this card show how it is playing out in thought and the other things Swords rule. If it keeps coming back over several days, write down what was happening each time.

Is the Seven of Swords a yes or a no?

In modern yes or no readings, the Seven of Swords leans no. Hidden factors point to no. Tarot is better at showing the shape of a situation than at handing down verdicts, so if the question really matters, turn it into an open question such as “What do I need to know about this?” and draw again.

Affirmation and journal prompts

Affirmation: I choose strategy that I can stand behind in daylight.

Reversed affirmation: I tell the needed truth and stop the clever cover story.

Journal prompts:

• What am I not saying, and why?
• Where do I need privacy, and where am I hiding?
• What did I leave behind?

What the Seven means in tarot

Seven is assessment, persistence, strategy and temptation. The Sevens stop to ask what is real and what is worth the effort. They test your judgment more than your strength.

Here is how the Seven looks across the four suits:

• Seven of Wands: defense, perseverance, challenge
• Seven of Cups: fantasy, illusion, choices
• Seven of Swords (this card): deception, trickery, strategy
• Seven of Pentacles: patience, long-term planning, assessment

Learning a rank across the suits is one of the fastest ways to learn the Minor Arcana: the number or court rank gives you the shape, and the suit gives you the setting.

The history and art behind the card

In most decks before 1909, the number cards showed only a pattern of suit symbols, the way a playing card does. The Sola Busca deck from late 1400s Italy is the famous exception. Pamela Colman Smith gave every Minor Arcana card a scene with people in it, and that choice is a big reason the Rider-Waite-Smith deck is still the easiest deck for beginners. In Italian decks the suit is Spade and in the Tarot de Marseille it is Épées, curved blades woven into patterns. Smith drew straight swords and big skies full of wind and cloud. Air is the element of the mind, and her Swords scenes are often about what we think and say more than what we physically do.

The man in this card tiptoes away from a camp of tents, holding five swords and looking back over his shoulder. Two swords stay stuck in the ground behind him. Beginners often read the card only as theft, but the picture is more interesting than that. He is smiling, and no one seems to have noticed him yet. The card can describe a clever plan, a quiet exit or a shortcut, so ask what the strategy is for, and who pays if it fails.

When A. E. Waite published The Pictorial Key to the Tarot in 1910, he listed these divinatory meanings for the Seven of Swords: “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, he gave: “Good advice, counsel, instruction, slander, babbling.” Waite said he was offering “a harmony of their meanings” gathered “from all sources”, which means older fortune-telling lists, not his own reading of the picture. On this site I read the picture first and treat lists like this as history.

A spread for the Seven of Swords

Use this spread when something feels hidden.

1. What is hidden? The secret or half-truth.
2. Who benefits? Whose interests are served.
3. What is the honest move? How to act with integrity.

Lay the three cards in a row, read each one on its own first, then read them together as a short story. Write one sentence for each position and one small action you will take.

Common questions

Is the Seven of Swords a yes or no card?

It leans no. Something is hidden or not quite right.

Does the Seven of Swords mean cheating?

It can point to secrets or dishonesty, but it can also mean strategy or privacy. Never accuse someone based on a card alone.

What does the Seven of Swords mean reversed?

A confession, a secret revealed or giving up a plan that relied on hiding.

Related cards

• The Moon: the Major Arcana card of hidden things
• Five of Swords: another card of taking at someone else’s cost
• The Magician: the Major Arcana card of skill, for better or worse

Keep learning

The Seven of Swords is part of the lesson Swords in my free Tarot for Beginners course. To see the whole suit on one page, go to the suit of Swords. To keep walking the suit, read the card before it, Six of Swords or the card after it, Eight of Swords, or go back to all the card meanings. For the suits and numbers in one place, see The Minor Arcana: suits and numbers made simple. For every card with keywords, affirmations and examples, see my book The Novice’s Guide to Tarot. If you would like a printable cheat sheet for all 78 cards, my 45-page Tarot Workbook is on Etsy.

Sources

• A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (London: Rider, 1910), Part III, sections 1 and 2.
• Pamela Colman Smith and A. E. Waite, the Rider-Waite-Smith tarot (London: Rider, 1909).
• Nicolas Conver, Tarot de Marseille (Marseille, 1760).
• Lauri Mukkala, The Novice’s Guide to Tarot, entry for the Seven of Swords.