Eight of Swords
Interference
Lord of Shortened Force
Good thinking blocked by accident and distraction: too many small obstacles.
| Title | Interference (Lord of Shortened Force) |
|---|---|
| Number | Eight: Hod, Splendour |
| Suit | Swords: Air, Yetzirah |
| Decan | ♃︎ Jupiter in ♊︎ Gemini I, 0°–10° |
| Dates | May 21–31 |
| Dignity | Detriment: Jupiter is opposite its own sign here and works against the grain |
| Court | Knight of Swords rules this decan |
| Trumps | Fortune (Jupiter) and The Lovers (Gemini) |
In a reading
Restriction, hindrance from unexpected sources, too much force spent on small things, shortened force; attention to detail at the cost of the whole. Badly placed: the same patience in detail, but nothing achieved.
Working with the card
| Do | Clear one obstacle at a time; simplify. |
|---|---|
| Bring | Patience, focus on detail. |
| Beware | Being scattered by trifles; persistence without priority. |
| Ask | What is the one thing that matters here? |
Why this title
| Number | Eight = Hod. Thought out: a partial, intellectual remedy for the seven; still off the middle pillar. |
|---|---|
| Suit | Swords = Air. Mind, speech, conflict. |
| Decan | ♃︎ Jupiter in ♊︎ Gemini. Detriment: Jupiter is opposite its own sign here and works against the grain. |
| Result | Interference. Hod in the world of Air: mind organising mind, and the organisation gets in its own way. Jupiter in the first decan of Gemini expands where the sign would divide. |
Every small card from Two to Ten is named this way: a Sephirah, an element and a decan read together. See Numerology for all thirty-six.
Correspondences
On the card
Two long swords are crossed by six small weapons of different oriental kinds, each blocking the others; the sky is criss-crossed.
Kabbalah
Hod, Splendour, in Yetzirah, the world of formation. Splendour, the sphere of Mercury: intellect, language, science, form without force. Hod is the mirror of Netzach on the other pillar. The Eights are Hod in the four worlds and show the element organised, sometimes overorganised, by mind.
Hod in the world of Air: mind organising mind, and the organisation gets in its own way. Jupiter in the first decan of Gemini expands where the sign would divide.
Astrology
Jupiter in the first decan of Gemini (0°–10°, about May 21–31). Jupiter is expansion, generosity, luck, law and the king's mercy. On the Tree it is Chesed; among the trumps it is Fortune, the wheel that turns by its own law.
Gemini is mutable Air: the twins, the mind that sees two of everything, speech and exchange. Mercury rules it. Its trump is the Lovers. The trump of Gemini is The Lovers.
This decan is ruled by the Knight of Swords, whose arc runs from 21° Taurus to 20° Gemini. The two Shem angels of the decan are Iezalel and Mebahel.
Number
Thought: intellect, analysis, the mind organising what feeling has produced. Hod, Splendour. The Eights show the element ordered by mind; Adjustment is trump VIII.
Depth psychology
Thinking obstructed by its own machinery; the mind lost in its instruments. The Swords are usually read as the thinking function in Jung's typology, an interpretive convention rather than a text of Jung's.
Thoth and Rider-Waite
Rider-Waite calls the suit Swords. Its small cards carry scenes; the Thoth small cards carry the suit emblems arranged geometrically, with the keyword printed at the bottom and the colours of their Sephirah and decan. The Golden Dawn title (Lord of Shortened Force) is shared by both traditions.
Decan in depth
Jupiter at its best gives generosity, wisdom, faith, humour, mentorship, good fortune. At its worst: arrogance, dogmatism, self-righteousness, overpromising, gluttony, waste, the guru complex.
Gemini (“I think”) brings curiosity, wit, communication, versatility, youthfulness. Its shadow is superficiality, inconsistency, gossip, nervous scatter, two-facedness.
Together: Jupiter is opposite its own sign here and works against the grain. Dignity explains part of the title and the Sephirah explains the rest: a planet at home in its sign can still sit in a hard sphere, and a weak planet can be carried by a strong one.
The Sun crosses this decan around May 21–31, so it is the decan card of anyone born then; their court card is the Knight of Swords. Find a birthday.
Related cards
The Eights, Hod in the four worlds
The other decans of Gemini
The trump of Gemini
The trump of Jupiter
Ruled by
Neighbours in the year
Correspondences follow the Golden Dawn system as used in Crowley's Book of Thoth and Liber 777. Paintings by Lady Frieda Harris, © Ordo Templi Orientis. Where sources differ.