“To anyone trapped in a cage. Break free, spread your wings. May your flight be long.”
– Braidee Otto
Manipulation, Deception, Merciless adversaries.
Overview
Somethings in life we are absolutely merciless to, and one of those things is other people playing god. Manipulated, paranoid, your intuition is firing off like broken cylinder, but the wool is pulled snuggly over your eyes. Whoever is doing this has experience, they’ve done this before, and know fully how to get away with it. They’ve gotten away with it 100 times in the past.
Symbolism
The Eight of Swords depicts a blindfolded and bound woman standing amid a circle of eight swords plunged into the muddy ground around her, forming a makeshift prison that restricts her movement. Her arms are tied loosely behind her back, and her feet are free, suggesting the entrapment is more perceptual than absolute—a path forward appears open if she could see it. In the background, a distant castle on a hill overlooks a desolate, watery landscape under gray skies, evoking isolation and despair. The card symbolizes themes of feeling trapped by fears, self-doubt, or limiting beliefs, with a hint that escape is possible through clarity and inner strength.
Meaning
Manipulation
There is an abusive, manipulative, over-all negative situation holding you here. All the power you’ve been gaining has been hemorrhaged into this greater power. They stole your voice, and the ground beneath your feet.
Deception
There is something about this situation that causes you discomfort and unhappiness. You can’t see clearly, so you won’t be able to see what it is for certain. It’s hard to see but there are ways out. If you ask the right questions, the truth will always reveal itself. If not directly, through misaligned stories, and inconsistencies.
This oppression has left you with psychological damage or maybe the reason you are here. You are a prisoner of your own mind. This weakened state has is imprisoning you completely into a stagnant depression.
Merciless Adversaries
All control you’ve had, is relinquished to something else that is expecting you to perform as a marionette beneath their strings. Disenchanted and bound you have no choice but to rely on the person who put you in this mortal cell.
Perceived Helplessness
Disillusionment from your current scenarios has you stuck in shock. There is a lack, or a constraint that is forcing you to stay in a situation you are not thrilled to be in.
Wise seeing Wise action
The positive of this card is that whatever this problem is does not require any resources, aside from critical thinking skills. This is something you can absolutely think yourself out of, just look for the exit signs in the smoke-filled rooms of your mind and follow them to your resolution.
The Eight of swords Reversed
“Freedom is nothing else but a chance to be better.”
— Albert Camus
Mental relief, Empowerment, Dissolving illusion, Breaking out
Overview
The reversed meaning of the Eight of Swords tends to be the polarity of the upright meaning. Though some definitions have a more critical meaning. A majority of the meanings indicate liberation from a trap, or the deepening of it.
Meaning
Mental Relief
The thing that bound you to a situation is releasing its hold. You can feel the ropes around you coming loose, and the blindfold slipping free. This is a moment of mental release from a situation. Whether the truth came and set you free, or you chose to see something for what it is— you are finally free.
Empowerment
Rage isn’t always a negative emotion, if it allows you to escape from something that is keeping you trapped. Take that anger, and turn into an agent of chaos. Break down the cage of swords around you without fearing a single cut. A minor scratch isn’t going to stop the abomination inside of you begging to come out.
Dissolving Illusions
As silly as you feel about this revelation, you were never that trapped to begin with. It was just a situation you never imagined you would have to endure, or navigate. While your fear is just, you are finding your unwillingness to shake terror from your bones is doing less for you than actually taking the first step into the unknown.
Breaking Out
A manipulative or abusive situation has finally showed its ugliest side. While this has caused you heavy damage, the last strike was the one to break the whole thing wide open.
