Seven of Swords

Minor Arcana · Swords · number 7 · Sette di Spade

Seven of Swords, plate by Pamela Colman Smith
Pamela Colman Smith, 1910

Upright

The Seven of Swords is a man tiptoeing away from a camp with five swords in his arms, leaving two behind: a design, an attempt, a wish, confidence, but also a plan that may fail, quarrels that follow, and annoyance. Waite admits the meanings are at odds. If these days you are attempting a clever move, at work, with money, in a relationship, it is no accident that the card asks you to think it over: cunning succeeds by half, and the half left behind gets noticed. The practical advice: if your plan needs nobody to notice, it is probably not the right plan. Try the direct road.

Source: Arthur Edward Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910) · read the original passage
«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

Reversed, the Seven of Swords changes register: good advice, instruction, but also slander and babbling. Someone talks to you, and you must work out whether to help or to scheme. If these days you receive unsolicited suggestions, a colleague explaining how to do things, a relative who knows everything, it is no accident: there is good and there is poison, mixed together. Beware of the rumours circulating about you, and of the ones you yourself spread. It is an invitation to choose your ears. The practical advice: listen to those who tell you things you can verify, and end the conversation with anyone who talks about the absent.

Source: Arthur Edward Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910) · read the original passage
«Good advice, counsel, instruction, slander, babbling.»

Source

Arthur Edward Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910) Part III, § 2, The Lesser Arcana, Seven of Swords https://archive.org/details/a.-e.-waite-the-pictorial-key-to-the-tarot