Eight of Swords Meaning in Tarot by Avia from Tarot Teachings

About Eight of Swords
Meaning in Tarot

Now the blindfold first seen in the two of swords has moved to incapacitate all hope of mobility. The story of has evolved into full-on fear and a sense of being trapped due to the choices we made in the past.

The eight of swords Tarot card meaning effectively drives the point of helplessness and immobility home.

We have to ask ourselves why? How did we get ourselves into these constricting ties that bind? Quite simply, we’ve let a rabid mind control our reality. When unchecked, a mind can breed the worst kind of fears and insecurities. And, I think you would agree there is no implement more destructively misleading and strangling than fear.

Some Surfacing Keywords for the Eight of Swords Tarot Card Meaning:

Fear
Toxic
Abuse
Trapped
Illusion
Unknown
Limitation
Exclusion
Constriction
Paralyzation
Helplessness
Misperception

Further evidence of this line of thinking is our heroine standing in sloggy bogs of emotional (emotion = water) waste. The pools are putrid and unclear – a sign we have surrounded ourselves with the worst kind of misleading thoughts (thoughts = swords). Advice wrought from a ravenous mind run amuck. Essentially, fear has produced toxic waste, which has paralyzed us into inaction.

There is high irony in the eight of swords. It shows itself in the surrounding swords (thoughts) which are both our captor and salvation. The steely blades can slice effortlessly through our bindings, setting us free in one liberating swipe. Yet, unwisely we remain duped by our thoughts of limitation, and remain in an abysmal state of delusion.

Further, I appreciate how the castle or (in some versions) strong erecting pillars protrude from the background of the eight of swords. When these structures project themselves in my readings, I think of what I call the ?hind mind? or the Occipital lobe.

The Occipital lobe is chiefly in charge of visual perception. More irony, I love it. Although our figure is blindfolded, our foundational urges are at the back of our sensory perception. More succinctly (and in terms of the eight of swords Tarot card meaning):

We always have the “eyes” to see our sure footing.
We can choose what is projected on the screen of our minds
That which is our rock of foundation remains our strength (whether we see this with our physical eyes or not).

Some Symbols Striking Out From the Eight of Swords Tarot Card:

Blindfold: As one would guess, blindfolds deal with our inability to see things clearly. They represent an unwillingness to face the truth, inability to accept the facts, or a sign that something is being hidden from us. In a reading blindfolds are a sign that we need to be honest with ourselves, do more research, and/or get a different perspective. Get more about blindfold meaning in Tarot here.

Ropes: Another obvious emblem, ropes infer binding, confinement, or restriction. When we think of ropes, we often think of knots and is all tied up in them. In the case of the Hanged Man however, the rope is a utility – it serves as a necessity in order to pull away from our internal knots. When we are tied up, we are forced into a state of non-action and this is precisely the answer to our problems. The more we struggle with the ties that bind, often the tighter they become.