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<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nA 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Or is she? Look again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There’s a clear path out from between the swords. All she has to do is walk forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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<\/a>. 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n