Tarot Reading Will Valko be Released after Rerun from love and Deepspace
Reading Performed 07/09/2026 at 1:38 PM
Click or scroll down for the meaning of each position and the interpretation of its card.
Querent
The querent is the card that this user felt represented them or their situation best.
Justice
Card Meaning When Upright
Fairness, rightness, integrity, accomplishment; triumph of the deserving side in law.
Card Description
This figure sits between pillars, like the High Priestess. The pillars of Justice open into one world and the pillars of the High Priestess into another. The operation of spiritual justice is like the breathing of the Spirit where it wills, and we have no way to explain it. It is like the possession of the fairy gifts, high gifts, and the gracious gifts of the poet—we either have them or we don't, and their presence is as much a mystery as their absence.
Visual Layout
Card One
Three of Wands from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
The end of troubles; adversity, toil and disappointment will pause or stop.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings (When Upright)
A very good card; collaboration will favour enterprise.
Card Description
A calm, stately figure looks from a cliff's edge at ships passing over the sea. His back is turned. Three staves are planted in the ground, and he leans slightly on one of them.
Card Two
The Moon from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Hidden enemies, danger, slander, darkness, terror, deception, occult forces, error.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
The Moon. Some eighteenth-century cards shew the luminary on its waning side; in the debased edition of Etteilla, it is the moon at night in her plenitude, set in a heaven of stars; of recent years the moon is shewn on the side of her increase. In nearly all presentations she is shining brightly and shedding the moisture of fertilizing dew in great drops. Beneath there are two towers, between which a path winds to the verge of the horizon. Two dogs, or alternatively a wolf and dog, are baying at the moon, and in the foreground there is water, through which a crayfish moves towards the land.
Card Description
In this card the moon is waxing on what is called the side of mercy, to the right of the observer. It has sixteen chief and sixteen secondary rays. Drops of dew descend from above. Beneath are two towers, between which a path winds up to the horizon. A wolf and dog are baying at the moon, and in the foreground there is water, through which a crayfish moves toward the land. The card represents life of the imagination, apart from life of the spirit. The path between the towers is our path into the unknown. The dog and wolf are the fears of the natural mind in the presence of that mystery, when there is only reflected light to guide it.
Card Three
Knight of Swords from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Recklessness, disability, wastefulness.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Dispute with an imbecile person; for a woman, struggle with a rival, who will be conquered.
Card Description
A knight rides at full speed, as if scattering his enemies. He is the prototypical hero of romantic chivalry. He might almost be Galahad, whose sword is swift and sure because he is clean of heart.
Card Four
Five of Cups from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
News, alliances, affection, affiliation, ancestry, return.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Return of some relative who has not been seen for long.
Card Description
A dark, cloaked figure looks sideways at three cups lying on the ground. Two others stand upright behind him. A bridge in the background leads to a small keep or holding. This is a card of loss, but something remains at the end; three have been taken, but two are left.
Card Five
Page of Cups from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Taste, inclination, attachment, seduction, deception, ruses.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Obstacles of all kinds.
Card Description
A fair, attractive, somewhat effeminate Page, of studious and intent appearance, contemplates a fish rising from a cup to look at him. It is the pictures of the mind taking form.
Related Posts
Card Six
Queen of Cups from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Good, fair woman; honest, devoted woman, who will do service to the Querent; loving intelligence, and from it the gift of vision; success, happiness, pleasure; also wisdom, virtue; a perfect spouse and a good mother.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Sometimes denotes a woman of equivocal character.
Card Description
She is beautiful, fair, and dreamy; as if she sees visions in her cup. This is, however, only one of her sides; she sees, but she also acts, and her activity feeds her dream.
Card Seven
Ace of Swords from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Triumph, the excessive degree in everything, conquest. It is a card of great force, in love as well as in hatred. The crown may carry a much higher significance than usual in fortune-telling.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Great prosperity or great misery.
Card Description
A hand extends from a cloud, grasping a sword, the point of which is encircled by a crown.
Card Eight
Seven of Pentacles from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Cause for anxiety regarding money someone wants to borrow.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Impatience, apprehension, suspicion.
Card Description
A young man leans on his staff, and looks intently at seven pentacles attached to a plant on his right. It looks as if these were his treasures, and as if his heart were there.
Card Nine
Ten of Pentacles from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Gain, riches; family matters, archives, ancestry, the home of a family.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Represents house or dwelling, and derives its value from other cards.
Card Description
A man and woman beneath an archway that leads to a house and domain. They are accompanied by a child, who looks curiously at two dogs greeting an old man in the foreground. The child's hand rests on one of the dogs.
Card Ten
The Fool from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Folly, mania, extravagance, intoxication, delirium, frenzy, betrayal.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
The Fool, Mate, or Unwise Man. Court de Gebelin places it at the head of the whole series as the zero or negative which is presupposed by numeration, and as this is a simpler so also it is a better arrangement. It has been abandoned because in later times the cards have been attributed to the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, and there has been apparently some difficulty about allocating the zero symbol satisfactorily in a sequence of letters all of which signify numbers. In the present reference of the card to the letter Shin, which corresponds to 200, the difficulty or the unreason remains. The truth is that the real arrangement of the cards has never transpired. The Fool carries a wallet; he is looking over his shoulder and does not know that he is on the brink of a precipice; but a dog or other animal--some call it a tiger--is attacking him from behind, and he is hurried to his destruction unawares. Etteilla has given a justifiable variation of this card--as generally understood--in the form of a court jester, with cap, bells and motley garb. The other descriptions say that the wallet contains the bearer's follies and vices, which seems bourgeois and arbitrary.
Card Description
With light step, as if earth and its obstacles had little power to restrain him, a young man in gorgeous clothing pauses at the brink of a precipice among the great heights of the world; he surveys the blue distance before him—its expanse of sky rather than the landscape below. He seems to still be walking, though he is stationary at the given moment; his dog is still bounding. The edge that opens on the depth holds no terror for him, as if angels were waiting to uphold him, should he leap from that height. His face is full of intelligence and expectant wonder. He has a rose in one hand and in the other an expensive cane, which hangs over his right shoulder, dangling a curiously embroidered pouch. He is a prince of the other world, traveling through this one—all in the glory of the crisp morning air. The sun, which shines behind him, knows where he came from, where he is going, and how he will return: by another path, after many days. He is the Spirit in search of experience.
Card Eleven
King of Wands from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Dark, friendly man; man from your hometown or country—generally married, honest and conscientious. The card always signifies honesty, and may mean news concerning an unexpected inheritance to arrive before long.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Generally favourable may signify a good marriage.
Card Description
The physical and emotional nature of this card is dark, avid, agile, and noble. The King holds a flowering wand, and wears a cap beneath his crown. He is symbolized by the lion engraved on the back of his throne.
Card Twelve
The Tower from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Misery, distress, extreme poverty, adversity, disasters, disgrace, deception, ruin. It is a card in particular of unforeseen catastrophe.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
The Tower struck by Lightning. Its alternative titles are: Castle of Plutus, God's House and the Tower of Babel. In the last case, the figures falling therefrom are held to be Nimrod and his minister. It is assuredly a card of confusion, and the design corresponds, broadly speaking, to any of the designations except Maison Dieu, unless we are to understand that the House of God has been abandoned and the veil of the temple rent. It is a little surprising that the device has not so far been allocated to the destruction Of Solomon's Temple, when the lightning would symbolize the fire and sword with which that edifice was visited by the King of the Chaldees.
Card Description
A Tower struck by Lightning. It is definitely a card of confusion, and the design can correspond to any well-known catastrophe. It may also depict the House of God, abandoned, and the Veil of the Temple, rent.
Related Posts
Card Thirteen
Six of Pentacles from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Presents, gifts, gratification.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
The present must not be relied on.
Card Description
A merchant weighs money in a pair of scales, and distributes it to the needy and distressed. It is a testimony to his own success in life, as well as to his goodness of heart.
Card Fourteen
Three of Swords from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Removal, absence, delay, division, separation, dispersion, and all that the design naturally signifies.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
For a woman, the flight of her lover.
Card Description
Three swords pierce a heart; there are clouds and rain behind.
Card Fifteen
Four of Cups from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Weariness, disgust, aversion, imaginary annoyances; also mixed pleasure.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Contrarieties.
Card Description
A young man sits under a tree, contemplating three cups on the grass before him. An arm extends from a cloud to offer him another cup. His appears discontent, as if the wine of this world had barely satisfied him. Another wine—a fairy gift—is now offered to the vagabond, but he sees no consolation in it, either.
Card Sixteen
King of Swords from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Judgement and its associations; power, command, authority, military intelligence, law, offices of the state.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
A lawyer, senator, doctor.
Card Description
He sits in judgement, holding the sign of his suit. He recalls the Justice card from the Major Arcana, and he may represent this virtue, but he possesses earthly power over life and death, because he is King.
Card Seventeen
Eight of Cups from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
The decline of a matter; something thought to be important is really of slight consequence—either for good or evil.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Marriage with a fair woman.
Card Description
A dejected-looking man abandons the cups of his celebrations. They symbolize an enterprise, undertaking, or previous concern.
Card Eighteen
Four of Pentacles from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Suspense, delay, opposition.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Observation, hindrances.
Card Description
A crowned figure with a pentacle over his head clasps another pentacle with his hands and arms. Two pentacles lie beneath his feet. He holds on to what he has.
Card Nineteen
Two of Swords from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Deceit, falsehood, duplicity, disloyalty.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Dealings with rogues.
Card Description
A blindfolded woman balances two swords upon her shoulders.
Card Twenty
Strength from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Tyranny, abuse of power, weakness, discord, sometimes even disgrace.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings (When Upright)
Fortitude. This is one of the cardinal virtues, of which I shall speak later. The female figure is usually represented as closing the mouth of a lion. In the earlier form which is printed by Court de Gebelin, she is obviously opening it. The first alternative is better symbolically, but either is an instance of strength in its conventional understanding, and conveys the idea of mastery. It has been said that the figure represents organic force, moral force and the principle of all force.
Card Description
A woman, over whose head is the same symbol of life seen in the Magician card, closes the jaws of a lion. Her benevolent strength has already subdued the lion, which is being led by a leash of flowers. Fortitude, in one of its most exalted aspects, is connected with the Divine Mystery of Union. It connects also with untouched innocence, and with the strength that resides in contemplation. These higher meanings are hinted at in a concealed manner by the leash of flowers, which signifies the sweet yoke and the light burden of Divine Law, when it has been taken into the heart of hearts. The card has nothing to do with ordinary self-confidence—it concerns the confidence of those whose strength is God and have found their refuge in Him. In one sense, the lion signifies the animal passions, and the lady called Strength signifies the higher nature of Man in his liberation. The higher nature of Man has walked upon the asp and the basilisk and has trodden down the lion and the dragon (see Psalm 91:13).
Card Twenty One
Eight of Swords from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Bad news, terror, crisis, rebuke, powerful obstacles, conflict, slander; also sickness.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
For a woman, scandal spread in her respect.
Card Description
A woman stands bound and blindfolded, with the swords of the card around her. It is a card of temporary imprisonment rather than permanent bondage.
The Meanings of these Tarot Cards
Card One
Three of Wands from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
The end of troubles; adversity, toil and disappointment will pause or stop.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings (When Upright)
A very good card; collaboration will favour enterprise.
Card Description
A calm, stately figure looks from a cliff's edge at ships passing over the sea. His back is turned. Three staves are planted in the ground, and he leans slightly on one of them.
Card Two
The Moon from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Hidden enemies, danger, slander, darkness, terror, deception, occult forces, error.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
The Moon. Some eighteenth-century cards shew the luminary on its waning side; in the debased edition of Etteilla, it is the moon at night in her plenitude, set in a heaven of stars; of recent years the moon is shewn on the side of her increase. In nearly all presentations she is shining brightly and shedding the moisture of fertilizing dew in great drops. Beneath there are two towers, between which a path winds to the verge of the horizon. Two dogs, or alternatively a wolf and dog, are baying at the moon, and in the foreground there is water, through which a crayfish moves towards the land.
Card Description
In this card the moon is waxing on what is called the side of mercy, to the right of the observer. It has sixteen chief and sixteen secondary rays. Drops of dew descend from above. Beneath are two towers, between which a path winds up to the horizon. A wolf and dog are baying at the moon, and in the foreground there is water, through which a crayfish moves toward the land. The card represents life of the imagination, apart from life of the spirit. The path between the towers is our path into the unknown. The dog and wolf are the fears of the natural mind in the presence of that mystery, when there is only reflected light to guide it.
Card Three
Knight of Swords from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Recklessness, disability, wastefulness.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Dispute with an imbecile person; for a woman, struggle with a rival, who will be conquered.
Card Description
A knight rides at full speed, as if scattering his enemies. He is the prototypical hero of romantic chivalry. He might almost be Galahad, whose sword is swift and sure because he is clean of heart.
Card Four
Five of Cups from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
News, alliances, affection, affiliation, ancestry, return.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Return of some relative who has not been seen for long.
Card Description
A dark, cloaked figure looks sideways at three cups lying on the ground. Two others stand upright behind him. A bridge in the background leads to a small keep or holding. This is a card of loss, but something remains at the end; three have been taken, but two are left.
Card Five
Page of Cups from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Taste, inclination, attachment, seduction, deception, ruses.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Obstacles of all kinds.
Card Description
A fair, attractive, somewhat effeminate Page, of studious and intent appearance, contemplates a fish rising from a cup to look at him. It is the pictures of the mind taking form.
Related Posts
Card Six
Queen of Cups from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Good, fair woman; honest, devoted woman, who will do service to the Querent; loving intelligence, and from it the gift of vision; success, happiness, pleasure; also wisdom, virtue; a perfect spouse and a good mother.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Sometimes denotes a woman of equivocal character.
Card Description
She is beautiful, fair, and dreamy; as if she sees visions in her cup. This is, however, only one of her sides; she sees, but she also acts, and her activity feeds her dream.
Card Seven
Ace of Swords from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Triumph, the excessive degree in everything, conquest. It is a card of great force, in love as well as in hatred. The crown may carry a much higher significance than usual in fortune-telling.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Great prosperity or great misery.
Card Description
A hand extends from a cloud, grasping a sword, the point of which is encircled by a crown.
Card Eight
Seven of Pentacles from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Cause for anxiety regarding money someone wants to borrow.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Impatience, apprehension, suspicion.
Card Description
A young man leans on his staff, and looks intently at seven pentacles attached to a plant on his right. It looks as if these were his treasures, and as if his heart were there.
Card Nine
Ten of Pentacles from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Gain, riches; family matters, archives, ancestry, the home of a family.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Represents house or dwelling, and derives its value from other cards.
Card Description
A man and woman beneath an archway that leads to a house and domain. They are accompanied by a child, who looks curiously at two dogs greeting an old man in the foreground. The child's hand rests on one of the dogs.
Card Ten
The Fool from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Folly, mania, extravagance, intoxication, delirium, frenzy, betrayal.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
The Fool, Mate, or Unwise Man. Court de Gebelin places it at the head of the whole series as the zero or negative which is presupposed by numeration, and as this is a simpler so also it is a better arrangement. It has been abandoned because in later times the cards have been attributed to the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, and there has been apparently some difficulty about allocating the zero symbol satisfactorily in a sequence of letters all of which signify numbers. In the present reference of the card to the letter Shin, which corresponds to 200, the difficulty or the unreason remains. The truth is that the real arrangement of the cards has never transpired. The Fool carries a wallet; he is looking over his shoulder and does not know that he is on the brink of a precipice; but a dog or other animal--some call it a tiger--is attacking him from behind, and he is hurried to his destruction unawares. Etteilla has given a justifiable variation of this card--as generally understood--in the form of a court jester, with cap, bells and motley garb. The other descriptions say that the wallet contains the bearer's follies and vices, which seems bourgeois and arbitrary.
Card Description
With light step, as if earth and its obstacles had little power to restrain him, a young man in gorgeous clothing pauses at the brink of a precipice among the great heights of the world; he surveys the blue distance before him—its expanse of sky rather than the landscape below. He seems to still be walking, though he is stationary at the given moment; his dog is still bounding. The edge that opens on the depth holds no terror for him, as if angels were waiting to uphold him, should he leap from that height. His face is full of intelligence and expectant wonder. He has a rose in one hand and in the other an expensive cane, which hangs over his right shoulder, dangling a curiously embroidered pouch. He is a prince of the other world, traveling through this one—all in the glory of the crisp morning air. The sun, which shines behind him, knows where he came from, where he is going, and how he will return: by another path, after many days. He is the Spirit in search of experience.
Card Eleven
King of Wands from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Dark, friendly man; man from your hometown or country—generally married, honest and conscientious. The card always signifies honesty, and may mean news concerning an unexpected inheritance to arrive before long.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Generally favourable may signify a good marriage.
Card Description
The physical and emotional nature of this card is dark, avid, agile, and noble. The King holds a flowering wand, and wears a cap beneath his crown. He is symbolized by the lion engraved on the back of his throne.
Card Twelve
The Tower from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Misery, distress, extreme poverty, adversity, disasters, disgrace, deception, ruin. It is a card in particular of unforeseen catastrophe.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
The Tower struck by Lightning. Its alternative titles are: Castle of Plutus, God's House and the Tower of Babel. In the last case, the figures falling therefrom are held to be Nimrod and his minister. It is assuredly a card of confusion, and the design corresponds, broadly speaking, to any of the designations except Maison Dieu, unless we are to understand that the House of God has been abandoned and the veil of the temple rent. It is a little surprising that the device has not so far been allocated to the destruction Of Solomon's Temple, when the lightning would symbolize the fire and sword with which that edifice was visited by the King of the Chaldees.
Card Description
A Tower struck by Lightning. It is definitely a card of confusion, and the design can correspond to any well-known catastrophe. It may also depict the House of God, abandoned, and the Veil of the Temple, rent.
Related Posts
Card Thirteen
Six of Pentacles from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Presents, gifts, gratification.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
The present must not be relied on.
Card Description
A merchant weighs money in a pair of scales, and distributes it to the needy and distressed. It is a testimony to his own success in life, as well as to his goodness of heart.
Card Fourteen
Three of Swords from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Removal, absence, delay, division, separation, dispersion, and all that the design naturally signifies.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
For a woman, the flight of her lover.
Card Description
Three swords pierce a heart; there are clouds and rain behind.
Card Fifteen
Four of Cups from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Weariness, disgust, aversion, imaginary annoyances; also mixed pleasure.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Contrarieties.
Card Description
A young man sits under a tree, contemplating three cups on the grass before him. An arm extends from a cloud to offer him another cup. His appears discontent, as if the wine of this world had barely satisfied him. Another wine—a fairy gift—is now offered to the vagabond, but he sees no consolation in it, either.
Card Sixteen
King of Swords from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Judgement and its associations; power, command, authority, military intelligence, law, offices of the state.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
A lawyer, senator, doctor.
Card Description
He sits in judgement, holding the sign of his suit. He recalls the Justice card from the Major Arcana, and he may represent this virtue, but he possesses earthly power over life and death, because he is King.
Card Seventeen
Eight of Cups from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
The decline of a matter; something thought to be important is really of slight consequence—either for good or evil.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Marriage with a fair woman.
Card Description
A dejected-looking man abandons the cups of his celebrations. They symbolize an enterprise, undertaking, or previous concern.
Card Eighteen
Four of Pentacles from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Suspense, delay, opposition.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Observation, hindrances.
Card Description
A crowned figure with a pentacle over his head clasps another pentacle with his hands and arms. Two pentacles lie beneath his feet. He holds on to what he has.
Card Nineteen
Two of Swords from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Deceit, falsehood, duplicity, disloyalty.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Dealings with rogues.
Card Description
A blindfolded woman balances two swords upon her shoulders.
Card Twenty
Strength from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Tyranny, abuse of power, weakness, discord, sometimes even disgrace.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings (When Upright)
Fortitude. This is one of the cardinal virtues, of which I shall speak later. The female figure is usually represented as closing the mouth of a lion. In the earlier form which is printed by Court de Gebelin, she is obviously opening it. The first alternative is better symbolically, but either is an instance of strength in its conventional understanding, and conveys the idea of mastery. It has been said that the figure represents organic force, moral force and the principle of all force.
Card Description
A woman, over whose head is the same symbol of life seen in the Magician card, closes the jaws of a lion. Her benevolent strength has already subdued the lion, which is being led by a leash of flowers. Fortitude, in one of its most exalted aspects, is connected with the Divine Mystery of Union. It connects also with untouched innocence, and with the strength that resides in contemplation. These higher meanings are hinted at in a concealed manner by the leash of flowers, which signifies the sweet yoke and the light burden of Divine Law, when it has been taken into the heart of hearts. The card has nothing to do with ordinary self-confidence—it concerns the confidence of those whose strength is God and have found their refuge in Him. In one sense, the lion signifies the animal passions, and the lady called Strength signifies the higher nature of Man in his liberation. The higher nature of Man has walked upon the asp and the basilisk and has trodden down the lion and the dragon (see Psalm 91:13).
Card Twenty One
Eight of Swords from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Bad news, terror, crisis, rebuke, powerful obstacles, conflict, slander; also sickness.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
For a woman, scandal spread in her respect.
Card Description
A woman stands bound and blindfolded, with the swords of the card around her. It is a card of temporary imprisonment rather than permanent bondage.
