Eight of Wands Tarot Card Meaning

Eight of Wands upright

Eight wands fly through open country, close to the end of their course. Waite says they signify something near at hand — swiftness, great haste, great hope, and even the arrows of love. Expect replies, decisions and movement soon.

Eight of Wands reversed

Waite reversed gives arrows of jealousy, internal dispute, stings of conscience and quarrels — at home, domestic disputes. Slow down before replying in a hurry.

A reversed card (What does Upright / reversed card mean?) is one drawn upside-down.

Is Eight of Wands a yes or no?

Upright: Leans yes. Yes — and probably soon.

Reversed: Reversed, Eight of Wands reads as a gentle no: jealousy, quarrels, guilty conscience.

The yes/no lean is BornClock’s reading convention drawn from the card’s meaning — Waite himself did not assign one.

Symbolism in the Eight of Wands card

What appears in the 1909 Rider–Waite–Smith picture, as Waite describes it:

• Eight wands in flight — Waite: motion near its end — what they bring is at hand
• Open, unobstructed land — nothing in the way

In Waite’s own words (paraphrased)

Upright: activity in undertakings, swiftness (as of an express messenger), great haste, great hope; the arrows of love.

Reversed: arrows of jealousy, internal dispute, stings of conscience, quarrels; domestic disputes.

Source: A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910, public domain). Some of Waite’s 1910 fortune-telling meanings are old-fashioned; the plain-English reading above is ours.