Eight of Swords

Tarot: Thursday, September 24

A card drawn from one of three decks

This is an archived reading, kept as it was published.

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Eight of Swords

Rider–Waite–Smith Tarot
Eight of Swords

The figure in the Eight of Swords is bound and blindfolded, standing among eight swords stuck in the ground, and the bindings are loose. The card is confinement that is mostly psychological: the fear is real and the walls are not. Today you will feel trapped by something, and the feeling will be accurate about the fear and wrong about the trap. Before you do anything else, test the binding. Move one hand. Most of what holds you today is a story you have been telling since last week, and the swords, when you look, have gaps between them wide enough to walk through.

Read the full card

For your star sign

The same reading, taken through each sign of the zodiac.

Aries

You will fight the bindings and tighten them. Stop struggling. Today, feel for the gap instead of the wall. The Eight of Swords opens for whoever stops pulling.

Taurus

You have stood among the swords so long they feel like furniture. Today notice they are swords, and then notice the gap. Comfortable confinement is still confinement.

Gemini

You have talked yourself into the cage and can talk yourself out. Today stop narrating and move one hand. The bindings are loose and the story is what holds them.

Cancer

The swords are memories and you have arranged them into a fence. Today, look at them as what they are: eight things, standing in the ground, with room between. Walk out.

Leo

You feel watched in the cage and there is no audience. The blindfold is yours. Today take it off first and see that the field is empty and the swords are few.

Virgo

You have mapped the cage precisely and the map has no exit on it. The map is wrong. Today test one binding you were certain of. The certainty was the wall.

Libra

You will not move because either direction might be the wrong one. Standing still is also a direction. Today pick a gap, any gap, and the indecision is the thing you leave behind.

Scorpio

You know who put the swords there and you have been staring at them instead of the gaps. Today look at the gaps. The person is not the cage; the staring is.

Sagittarius

You will bolt blindfolded and run into a sword. Take the blindfold off first. Today the exit is obvious once you can see, and it is not the direction you were about to run.

Capricorn

You have accepted the cage as a condition of the job. It is not a condition of anything. Today loosen one binding and see whether the job notices. It will not.

Aquarius

You will theorise the cage as a system. It is a fear with props. Today the analysis is the binding; move a hand instead of explaining why you cannot.

Pisces

You dissolve into the confinement and call it fate. Today it is a story, and stories end. Feel for the gap in the bindings. It is there and it is yours.

For your Chinese animal

The same reading, taken through each animal of the Chinese zodiac.

Rat

You have found every gap in the swords and used none, waiting for a better one. Today use the gap you have. The cage does not improve with study.

Ox

You will stand among the swords until someone unties you. No one is coming. Today move one hand yourself; the binding gives, and it always did.

Tiger

You will charge the swords blindfolded. Take the blindfold off. Today the way out is a walk, not a fight, and there is a gap directly in front of you.

Rabbit

The swords are where you stopped, and you stop early. Today the field is safer than the cage. Take the blindfold off and look at how much room there is.

Dragon

Being bound offends you and the offence has kept you standing there. Today set the offence down. The bindings are loose and were never worth the fury.

Snake

You know the bindings are loose and have chosen to stay. Today ask what the staying is for. If there is no answer, the gap in the swords is the answer.

Horse

You will run in the blindfold and hit a sword. Today, blindfold off, one step, then run. The order matters more than the speed.

Goat

You are waiting for someone to tell you it is safe to move. Today tell yourself. The bindings are loose, the swords have gaps, and permission is not coming from outside.

Monkey

You will find the cage interesting and stay to study it. Today the study is the cage. Move one hand, walk through the gap, and be interested in something else.

Rooster

You have listed every sword and its angle. The list is complete and the list is the wall. Today put it down and feel for the binding, which is loose.

Dog

You stayed in the cage because someone you love is in it too. Today check whether they are. Most of the time the cage held one, and it was you.

Pig

The cage is uncomfortable and you have made it homely. Today make it empty. Loosen the binding, take one step, and find the field was always there.

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