Eight of Wands
Swiftness is the major characteristic of Eight of Wands. Acting quickly, quick thinking, moving, swift reaction, instant and sudden changes, quick reasoning and anything which has something with swiftness. This card signifies quick changes and implies fluctuations of energy flow. Energy level might oscillate up and down in moments because so much force is applied so quickly. Lifting energy of Eight of Wands removes blockages and bring enthusiasm what leads to action. The desire for rapid manifestation may cause hastiness and thoughtless deeds and words.
Eight of Wands is related with first decan of Sagittarius ruled by Mercury. Sagittarius, fiery mutable sign, is sign of big ideas, expansion, unique personal philosophy, idealistic views, foreigners and foreign countries, modern life style and philosophical views toward life in general. Mercury, as a messenger, is dealing with all kinds of spoken or written word. So here are messages, talking, texts, chats, e-mails, communication with foreigners, chatting via social networks and so on. Spreading any kind of informations to massive audience via far reaching modern social media fits well Mercury's decan of Sagittarius. The fact is that Sagittarius is detriment sign of Mercury, which mean that Mercury has low dignity here, only as a ruler of decan, which is the lowest of dignities. So this Mercury may spread disinformations as well. Mercury, which tends to be practical and rational, is more philosophically oriented here and has tendency to get lost in long long speeches, easily loses the point of talk, gets lost in a lot of unimportant details, misinterprets the facts and pays more attention to originality than exactness and accuracy. I don't mean that this is the position of liars, but that they are not so reliable due the lack of concreteness and dispersing of attention. At the other hand, this signifies an openhearted and honest personality, even too frank.
However, if well used, this is a quite good card for quick transformation, especially the spiritual one. Interests are delicate, pointed to honesty, openness, wholeness, higher purpose, expansion of spirituality and seeking the truth.
Eight of Wands is sometimes represented as arrows of love or Cupid's arrows. This interpretation highlights romantic nature of this card. In divination it could be read as new romance, quick falling in love, messages of romantic content or if it's upside down as arrows of jealousy, disagreement, compunction and delaying of action due to scattered thoughts and lack of course.
Famous Arthur Edward Waite's interpretation for Eight of Wands is "The card represents motion through the immovable - a flight of wands through an open country; but they draw to the term of their course. That which they signify is at hand; it may be even on the threshold."
The message of Eight of Wands for today would be: You are at the right course, your forces are pointed to your goal which is almost reached. Realization is at hand. Pronounced words are like shot arrows, once they are told they can't be repealed. They will reach a target. So, this card warns to be careful with words and thoughts as well. Thoughts are powerful too, they don't need to be spoken aloud to get in force, they are powerful by themselves. This resonates with nowadays popular story about the law of attraction, your life is alike your thoughts. Define your thoughts and your goals, shoot your intention like and arrow to desired direction and expect desired result.