Eight of Swords
Upright: Negative thoughts, self-imposed restriction, imprisonment, victim mentality
Reversed: Self-limiting beliefs, inner critic, releasing negative thoughts, open to new perspectives
Eight of Swords reveals that you feel trapped and restricted by your circumstances. You believe your options are limited with no clear path out. When Eight of Swords appears in a Tarot reading, it comes as a warning that your thoughts and beliefs are no longer serving you. You may be over-thinking things, creating negative patterns, or limiting yourself. Eight of Swords is often associated with a victim mentality. You have surrendered your power to an external entity, allowing yourself to become trapped and limited in some way. You may feel like the victim, waiting to be rescued, but is this energy serving you? It is imperative for you to take back your power and personal accountability and open your eyes to the options in front of you. The fact is you do have choices. You are not powerless. As you change your thoughts, you change your reality. Replace negative thoughts with positive ones, and you will start to create a more favorable situation for yourself. Be open to finding the answer rather than getting stuck on the problem.
Eight of Swords has a traditional Tarot image with subtle Dia de los Muertos imagery-a rib cage and anatomical heart and flowers. She (her heart) is imprisoned/restricted by the swords/rib cage/bindings on her arms and blindfold across her eyes. Her limitations are self-imposed, afraid of being hurt. Again, this card is asking you to get out of your head and drop down into your gut and intuition so you can hear your inner guidance. Your thoughts are not serving you right now, but your intuition is. Trust yourself. Meanwhile the butterfly and flowers also represent hope. Look closer: the woman in the card is not entirely imprisoned by the eight swords around her. If she wanted to escape, she could. She merely needs to remove the blindfold and free herself from the self-imposed bindings that hold her back.
The Gemini zodiac is tattooed on her hand representing her negative aspects. At times Gemini is nervous, inconsistent, indecisive, with a tendency to suddenly get serious, thoughtful, and restless (trapped). Libra is tattooed on her forehead representing her intuition and positive thought. Libra is one dot of balance in the sea of different extremes. Whatever we do in our lifetimes only serves to point the way for our souls towards that "higher power" to finally measure our existence. Telling us where we went wrong or what we did right, Libras unconsciously teach us that true liberation hides in lightness.
Zodiac: Gemini, Libra
Element: Air
Color: White