The blindfold
Hoodwinked, the Masonic word for the candidate’s blindfold, is the word Waite uses for the woman on the Two of Swords. On the Eight she is blindfolded again, bound and ringed by swords.
In the tradition
Hoodwinked is the old word for blindfolded, and Freemasonry uses it for the candidate led blind into the lodge before receiving light. Waite, a Mason, uses it for the Two of Swords.
On the Eight, the woman is bound and blindfolded among swords, but the swords leave a gap and no one guards her. Waite’s word durance means a confinement that ends.
Sources
- A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910). Waite's own guide to the deck he designed with Pamela Colman Smith, with each card's divinatory meanings.
Updated October 9, 2026.
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