Bohemian Gothic Tarot
EIGHT OF SWORDS
Lighter or more conventional meanings
Feeling trapped in a situation * Being unable to move on from something that you know is not good for you * Being a willing victim - unwisely * Recognising that you are not as stuck in something - a job, a relationship, a place - as you once believed * A longing for freedom.Darker, shadow or more hidden meanings
Playing the victim * Refusing to help yourself * Pretending you are much less capable than you are * Being coquettish * Playing some silly - and possibly risky - psychological games.The Eight of Swords indicates restrictions, limitations, and an inability to move forward. It's about the general frustration of feeling tied down and held back. The important thing to remember, however, is that this card carries a strong implication that all these problems are, at least in part, self-imposed. The reality may be that you are more free than you imagine. Could it be that you're afraid to throw off the negative constraints and make some changes in your life?
This card shows a woman who appears at first glance to be tied up in a cell, hands shackled to a pillar. But look more closely, in fact there are no ropes or chains and the woman is, in fact, merely standing in this rather victimised (but at the same time distinctly coquettish) posture. She stares out of the picture with an ambiguous expression that's something between challenge and defiance. However, there is also something of a "come hither" seduction in her look, and the whole effect is rather unsettling. Why is she striking this uncomfortable pose - and in such unpleasantly dungeon-like surroundings? Why doesn't she simply walk away?
This card has much in common with the Two of Swords. In both, we have to decide if the central figure is having a restriction imposed upon them - in the case of the Two by the pressures of a surrounding situation, in the Eight more actively and probably by other people. We should also question if their confinement is in part self-chosen - in the Two this might be a case of putting up barriers unnecessarily, while in the Eight it's more a matter of submitting to constraints inflicted by others. The Eight of Swords can be the card of the hysteric or the agoraphobic, particularly when these conditions are to some extent chosen. It can point to someone who wants an excuse for not taking action and making things happen in their life. Instead of improving their lot, they like to take on the role of weak victim, a posture they mistakenly believe is rather attractive. But that's at the most extreme end of the range of ways that we can read this image; it can equally show someone who has not yet realised that they have it in their power to break out and step away from the things that restrict them. At any moment the young woman in this image could swap that simpering expression for one of determination, walk out of that cellar and do something to change her life. We can hope.
