TAROTSeven of Swords
Upright
Trickery and deception or taking calculated risks.
Dishonest behavior used to achieve a goal or task.
Taking a calculated risk to gain an advantage.
Making an ingenious plan to solve a difficult situation.
Intuition
Although the wolf is seen as a sly and evil creature by cultures who lived in settlements and cities, earlier hunter-gatherers saw it as a noble and magical spirit, and wearing its hide in the way shown would give you some of its magical properties.
Counting the man – Autolycus – there are 4 wolves on the card.
Reversed
Dishonesty and lies revealed.
Being caught out or suffering for your tricks and dishonesty.
Catching out someone else for their previous dishonesty.
Self-deception and lying to yourself.
Turning the page from dishonest to honest behavior
Astrologia
Very emotionally independent and can easily spend long periods as a loner. Strong on social causes within their group and open to creative ideas and designs. Intellectual curiosity. Can be emotionally detached, evasive or even cunning, making them difficult to know and appear cold to anyone trying to get close
Seven of Swords
The Seven of swords epitomizes the saying Send a thief to catch a thief.
We live in a world where we outwardly expect the best of ourselves and others in our stated plans and conversations, but our real plan can follow a more crooked path that assumes actual human nature and all its quirks and failings!
This is not a one sided game. We can be either the sly or dishonest one or the one outsmarted and lied to.
The card shows a man stealing swords from an open tent. He wears a wolf pelt in a way that some ancient cultures believed bestowed properties of the wolf to the wearer, including slyness and guile, wisdom or invisibility.
The thief has accomplices with him; wolves. A pack of wolves can represent teamwork and loyalty or the darker side of crowds when they work against you.
The man is blessed by Hermes with the skills of trickery and stealth and is often called the 'Prince of Thieves'.
Autolycus
The word Autolycus literally means ‘the wolf itself’. He is noted as being either a follower of Hermes or his son, and is the grandfather of Odysseus (Eight of cups) and another man known for cunning.
As a thief and trickster he had the useful ability to change both his own form and the form of the things he stole, including making either invisible.
He appears as a character on the periphery of myths as a supporting character, as befits someone who skulks in the shadows.
He appears in this deck primarily because this card is often called the ‘thief card’ and because of the thematic similarity to the animal archetype Autolycus mirrors; the wolf.
Description and Symbology
We see a man literally dressed as a wolf. He is full of cunning and guile. He holds five swords. Behind him we see a military camp. The closest tent is open,suggesting this is where the man’s swords were stolen from.
Two swords are left behind on the ground and guarded by a wolf each. The man may be either overconfident or not as careful as he might think. Someone else with the same level of guile (i.e. ‘another wolf’) may catch him for this mistake!
The man seems confident but that would only happen if the wolves behind him were part of his pack. If they are not then he is probably already in trouble but just does not know it yet!
The card always refers to someone (or something) doing wrong but it does not specify who. The card graphics are designed to be open to several interpretations. Looking carefully at the card can often give clues:
- The card can refer to a ‘spy or thief in your camp’ in which case someone you think is a friend is acting against you.
- The card can depict you as one of the wolves. You have evidence of wrongdoing but do not know who is doing it. Other cards may help in finding the culprit, as may the original question or other people in your life (i.e. the other wolf), but note that Tarot is usually not specific and instead gives clues for your intuition to jolt your waking mind into deeper thought.
- The card can depict you as the thief and someone who got away with it.
- The card can refer to you as the thief who got away with something but is not confident (via the two swords left on the ground) and now feel like you are being hunted down. In this case, the wolves behind you are law, natural cause and effect or your conscience (and there are more of them than you...).
- You are not a thief but an opportunist. You have taken more than your share (five of seven swords). The card is depicting the moral questions this raises.
- The card can refer to disease as a thief in the night. This is a complex reading of the card and discussed further in the next section.
The Thief
The thief is Autolycus, the mythical Prince of thieves. He wears a wolf pelt as used by the ancients in the belief they would gain the abilities of the wolf: guile, cunning, or invisibility, loyalty and protection. The thief has a wry smile on his face suggesting he thinks he has got away with it (or at least, got away with it at the time of the crime!).
The swords
Five of the swords are held by the thief and two lie on the ground. Either the thief was careless and left behind clues of his theft or has taken more than his fair share and left less for the other two wolves.
The camp
The thief has stolen his swords from a military camp and we see the closest tent has an open flap. This is where the swords were taken from. If the Tarot points to the querant not being the thief, then the thief is 'someone in the querent’s camp', suggesting someone the querant trusts is being deceptive.
The other wolves
The card may be suggesting that the querant will find evidence of wrongdoing against them, pointing to the querant being one of the wolves and on the trail of the thief. Note that one wolf is being cautious whereas the other is angry. Take your pick! The wolves may also be with the thief (the card is designed to allow many options).
The time of day
The card is set at dawn, one of the best times to commit a crime or deception. There is light but people are still asleep. If you’re going to do something deceitful, at least plan well!
Tips for Readings
The following table shows the upright and reverse meanings for general questions. The last row ('Yes/No') is useful when you are picking a single card to decide a yes or no decision.
Upright
Reversed
One of the partners in the relationship either does not trust the other or there is uncovered deception at play.
If you are the untrusting one then this card suggests your suspicions need to be investigated further.
If you are the one with a secret to hide then this card flags your deceit and the cards around it will suggest what will happen.
If this card has come out of the blue then the card suggests a deception or secret from your partner or they are holding something against you. This may be something you thought was resolved.
There is a deceit or secret within the relationship that will soon be revealed.
If this is a secret you have been keeping then be prepared to be found out.
If you suspect foul play, this may now be revealed.
Remember that Tarot does not predict the future but the future that will happen if you do nothing about the reading. There is the chance that open communication and a fair and open discussion may result in a more positive outcome.
You may have to be on your toes to outsmart someone who is working against you at work. This may be a competitor or someone you trust. Check the facts instead of assuming, divulge information only to those who need to know and don’t state any done deal until you see ink on the signature space!
If you are the wolf in the pack, then this card notes your deception or misdeed and other cards around this one will give more information on your success… or lack thereof!
Any deception in the workplace will soon be revealed. This may be a deception in progress being thwarted or the final outcome.
If you are expecting a promotion or positive appraisal, don’t go spending that raise until you actually have it as the outcome may not be as promised.
If you are counting on other people, check their continued support (and make sure they are not working against you!).
And of course if you are the one being deceptive, make sure you have a plan for being found out because that may soon happen.
There is deception of deceit when it comes to your health. You may be guilty of hiding from potentially serious symptoms, or causing it by self-inflicted actions, overwork, or poor lifestyle and you should know better.
You may also have a difficult to diagnose disease and your results contain an error.
In extreme cases, you may have an undiagnosed disease. If you have any suspicions now is the time to go for a test.
A health condition will soon be revealed to you. This may be life-changing or difficult to digest.
The condition may already be known to you if you are causing it: addiction, overwork, or poor work-life balance. If you carry on, you will soon inflict serious problems to yourself.
This card signifies dishonest behavior but when it comes to spiritual matters, it can also relate to delusional beliefs.
Be careful who you choose to believe as they may be leading you spiritually astray.
You may also be harboring delusions of your own, and the card asks that you consider this.
You will soon have some sort of revealed truth or epiphany that negates some of your currently held beliefs. This may come from yourself, your experiences, or the actions of others.
Whatever it is, be prepared for it, and accept the truth of the situation, as denying it will simply make the fallout worse.
Be wary of fraudulent dealings in your finances, perhaps checking up on your balances more than you usually would.
Make sure you read the small print and do not take any verbal promises at face value because deceit and cunning may be working against you.
You may be the one using cunning and deceit for your own ends. If this is the case, look carefully at the cards around this one. This card is a marker for your actions and the other cards will suggest the outcome.
Either someone else or you is acting in bad faith, dishonestly or fraudulently in a business or finance issue.
The problem this card signifies is that the issue will soon be discovered. So either be prepared for a revelation or book that one way flight to another continent!
More seriously, this card tells you what will happen if nothing changes after the reading. You are able to change the future Tarot specifies, so it may be worth asking a few succinct questions or putting things right yourself.
No because dishonesty and deception are present.
Yes because dishonesty and deception will be revealed. Note that if the person being dishonest is you, the ‘yes’ means ‘yes, you will be caught out for this’!
Reading the Card
Note that this card does not specify who is ‘acting as the thief’. Take care here if you are doing a reading for someone in front of you. It is usually best to just mention that you see the behavior rather than accuse (unless other cards specify someone other than the person in front of you!).
A subtle point to note about the imagery of a ‘thief in the night’ is that it can refer to ‘things that can steal’ other than thieves. This connection will turn up rarely but can be significant when it does. It can mean a disease or a habit or addiction that is a cause of shame.
Again, if you are giving a reading for a person in front of you, it may be worth probing this angle but of course do it sensitively. This is usually done by letting the person vocalize the connection if they want to. You may also see other cards to do with intuition that suggest the person may have an inkling of something wrong.
The upright card
The Seven of Swords represents guile, cunning, deception or planning that includes manipulating the situation for one’s own benefit. You are either the cunning one or the target, or the one hunting the thief. You probably already have an inkling of which one it is by the question being asked of the Tarot.
The Seven of Swords represents guile, cunning, deception or planning that includes manipulating the situation for one’s own benefit.
Whichever it is, you will have to be cautious and vigilant to prevent you being tricked! Don’t take anything at face value because not everything will be as it seems.
As noted in the Description and Symbology section, there are several combinations this card can be alluding to; either you are the deceptive one, someone else you trust is actually working against you, or you will be on the trail of the wrongdoer, or someone is about to attempt to take more than their fair share in something.
The reversal
The upright card does not specify whether or not the wrongdoer will be caught, but the reverse card suggests they will.
Be aware that the timescale for the reversed Seven of Swords can be from the past, making it a wildcard. Even if you have done nothing wrong for years, this card has a long memory (or more correctly, a memory that is as long as yours!). The issue could easily be a very old secret finally coming to light.
This card asks that you be ready to be found out if you are acting less than transparently.
Finally, the card can refer to self-deception:
- Are you defeating your own plans by being either overly optimistic or far too pessimistic?
- Are you bringing down someone close by being overly critical of them or setting high expectations on someone when you don’t have a clue of their ability or problems they face?
- Are you guilty of clear false beliefs?
- Are you cutting corners on something and then justifying it to yourself by blaming something else?
Card Design Process
This deck considers the earliest archetypes to be animals. Our distant ancestors were hunter-gatherers, and their Gods and confidants were the animal spirits of the animals they hunted, were hunted by, or that simply lived in the same environment.
One of the primary animal spirit archetypes across all cultures is the wolf. It was obvious that this card should have one as it epitomizes the sense of this card. The obvious best candidate was ‘the wolf itself’; Autolycus!
Final Words
This card suggests you are involved in secretive or deceptive behavior or are dealing with someone who is acting in the same manner. When reversed the same situation occurs but this time the behavior will be revealed.
Either way, be careful when you see this card!
