Card of the day: the eight of Swords

Blindfolded, bound, and encircled by the sharp, forbidding, cold metal edges of the eight swords, the woman is at the mercy of the forces that imprison her. Or is she? Look again.

A little context might be in order first. This is clearly the woman depicted on the two of swords. There, already blindfolded, she is weighing two choices in her hands. We don’t know, or need to know, what she decided then; clearly though, her judgement has led her to this awkward situation in which we see her on today’s card. It’s interesting to look at the blindfolds on the two cards. On the Two, she’s Justice, wilfully blind and impartial in the course of her duty. On the Eight, the face covering looks a lot more sinister. Stern and unsmiling but manifestly in control of her situation on the Two, she looks much less happy, lost and defeated, on the Eight.

Or is she? Look again.

There’s a clear path out from between the swords. All she has to do is walk forward.

Hell, we don’t even know that her hands are tied. For all we know, she can just reach up, shrug off those bandages, and go wherever she wants.

For this reason the eight of swords always reminds me of Maddie Ziegler and Shia LaBeouf cavorting around some weird birdcage-type thing in Sia’s music video for Elastic Heart. The gaps between the bars are big enough to move through. Shia’s considerably bigger than Maddie, so he has to breathe in a little and squeeze through, but neither of them are actually impeded. It’s not a cage, it’s a prop, and it allows both of them many more opportunities to perpetrate bizarre interpretive dance.

What restrains us? And does it truly bind us, or do we merely perceive ourselves bound? Are we necessarily as doomed as we believe?

…or does our belief beget our doom?

In my system for reading tarot, the eights are about motion, action, movement. Quite often they’re ambiguous, though. In focusing on motion and action, it’s necessary also to entertain notions of stillness and inaction, and the Rorschach-like nature of Pixie’s imagery frequently allows the viewer to decide what’s going on. Let’s take a look at the eights.

Whether you consider the lady between the swords to be forced there against her will, or free despite her appearance, it’s clear that the capacity for movement is the most important thing on her mind right now.

And I think it’s significant that the Wild Unknown deck—which just happens to be the deck I used to draw today’s CotD—shows the eight swords arranged around a chrysalis. Something beautiful is trapped inside, but only for the present, waiting for its moment of rebirth.

While I was writing this post, a Hozier track I’ve not heard before serendipitously came up on my Spotify.

You’re moving without moving
And when you move, I’m moved
You are a call to motion
There, all of you, a verb in perfect view
[…] When you move
I’m put to mind of all that I want to be

–Hozier, ‘Movement‘

Bound or not, the lady on the Eight shows us just how important movement is to us. The card is a call for us to address what’s holding us back, and to determine just how much of that restraint is something we impose upon ourselves.

And since May Day is coming up….