Bohemian Gothic Tarot

NINE OF SWORDS

Lighter or more conventional meanings

Dark dreams and nightmares * Feeling hysterical and out of control * Panic attacks * Phobias and irrational fears * Making yourself a victim - though you know you could be a lot less vulnerable if you choose to be * Stubbornly insisting on looking on the black side of life.

Darker, shadow or more hidden meanings

Invoking dark dreams and visions * Deliberately courting danger * Experiencing fear after reading/seeing/talking about horrors * Feeling unable to ask for help with your feelings of panic * Being afraid of going mad - though deep down you know this is irrational.

The Nine of Swords is a card about nightmares, "night terrors", panic, fear and loss of mental balance (usually as temporary as the nightmares that accompany it). The picture here is straightforward, it shows a young girl sitting up in bed and above her we see the ghastly nightmare from which she's just awoken. It involves a classically Gothic castle with crows wheeling in the air around it, and a bent crone issuing some sort of warning or dark prophecy. There's nothing very specific or realistic about this nightmare, but as we all know, that often only makes things more frightening. The young girl who has recently woken up certainly looks concerned and a little upset. Hands clasped together, she may even be praying for deliverance from what she's just seen. Yet the reality is that on the surface all is well. She is beautifully dressed and her bed is richly covered.

The Nine of Swords tends to indicate fears that are largely in the mind, rather than actual physical threats. It suggests someone who is anxious and given to phobia and panic attacks. Of course, it would be wrong to say that these things are not real, they're powerful and authentic to the person experiencing them. But by and large, they have to be dealt with internally rather than by confronting an external challenge. The Nines in tarot tend to show situations that are to some extent out of balance. Even the apparently happy Nines of Cups and Pentacles show scenes focused on one thing, material satisfaction, with little spirituality or intellectuality in evidence to provide a counterbalance. In the Nine of Swords we see a mind that's lost its equanimity and is spinning out of control into obsession, depression or anxiety. When we see this card it warns us to make a calm, objective assessment of our situation (or that of the person we feel the card indicates) and to look for ways to get things back into a more stable, balanced mental state.

Some further ways to consider this card

A tower, a witch intoning a prophecy and a flock of black crows all feature in the girl's nightmare. Pick some cards from the deck that you feel relate to these elements. Lay them out and look at the whole pattern. What do they tell you about this girl's fears and anxieties?