Card Meaning: Eight Of Swords
General
The figure on the card is tied and blindfolded, but it seems that it is
possible for her to move, her legs are unrestrained. Her captivity in this
situation is surely at least for one part her decision. It seems that she
doesn't move because she is afraid she will cut herself on the swords. This is a
pat position, if she doesn't move she is stuck in a place and if she moves she
will cut herself; in this no-win situation she is delaying her decision. This is
a tipical example where element of air goes out of control and force the mind of a
man to run in circles like dog running for its tail. She will have to find the
trick to use the swords to her advantage and unleash herself from the bonds of
doubt and fear. The lesson in this card is to show that no matter how situation
seems hard and hopeless there is always a way out if we look around us. We must
remain calm and act because hesitation, anger or panic will make a situation
just worse.
Reading
Positive:
patience.
Negative: powerless, trapped, depression due to restrictions, past that comes to
hunt you, censure, crisis.
A woman, bound and hoodwinked, with the swords of the card about her. Yet it
is rather a card of temporary durance than of irretrievable bondage.
Divinatory Meanings: Bad news, violent chagrin, crisis, censure, power in
trammels, conflict, calumny; also sickness. Reversed: Disquiet,
difficulty, opposition, accident, treachery; what is unforeseen; fatality.
— The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, by A.E. Waite