Eight of Swords

What the card means

Upright

Bound by a story about what is impossible. A woman stands among eight swords, tied and blindfolded - and not one of the swords is holding her. The trap is real exactly as far as it is believed, which is not a consolation but a direction to look in.

Reversed

One rope loosens and the whole thing gives. Sometimes it is seeing that the bindings are not locked, which is the first movement outward.

Love and relationships

Upright

A relationship it is not possible to leave. Test that impossibility: most often it is made of other people's words.

Reversed

Beginning to see the way out. Or having said out loud that it cannot go on.

Work and business

Upright

A job you seem locked into: age, city, speciality, obligations. The limits are real; their number is not.

Reversed

Found an option that looked closed. Or asked for help and got it.

Money

Upright

The feeling that there is no money and will not be. Do the arithmetic - the picture is usually less solid than the feeling.

Reversed

Money or a delay turned up where nobody was looking.

The card's advice

Test every “I cannot” against the word “yet”. The swords stand around her rather than holding her - and the blindfold comes off by the same hand that is tolerating it.

As the card of the day

A day on which everything looks closed. Good for testing one limit. Poor for final conclusions.

What is depicted

A woman stands bound and blindfolded among eight swords driven into the ground; a castle on a crag in the distance, water and mud underfoot. The swords are at her sides - ahead is open, and she cannot see it.

Zodiac sign and correspondences

Jupiter in Gemini - a thought grown into a wall.

With other cards

• Eight of Swords + The Devil — what holds you is not locked - not here and not there either.
• Eight of Swords + The Star — there is a way out, and it is nearer than it looks from here.
• Eight of Swords + Nine of Swords — fear and helplessness together; both exaggerate.