Cosmic Tribe Tarot

NINE OF SWORDS

Squelched Imagination

Like a punishing ancient god, the murderous thought returns yet again. Something somewhere isn't good enough! Fee, fie, foe, fum, it smells the blood from a worthless one. Where is that little cretin? the thought shouts as it stomps around the delicate china shop of self-esteem, thrashing and smashing the carefully-crafted wonders and shattering the porcelain rainbows of imagination. In the corner, frightened, a child huddles and unconsciously squeezes the life out of her own dreams. In the card, the murderous thoughts appear as teeth-like swords ripping the life out of a small bird. Swords, when straight and clear, represent clear thoughts. These swords, however, swerve and look rusty. They have been warped by negative experiences from the past and rusted by nightmarish emotional responses. The small bird is held by a child's hands and represents the soaring spirit that motivates us towards possibility. The child clutches it to protect it from the swords but in doing so prevents it from flying. The more frightened she becomes, the more she clutches the bird, eventually killing it. The child's hands and the bird, however, are transparent metaphors, ghosts from the past, that accompany us in the present. But the swords harsh reality is very much in the present. They pierce our self-esteem and make our lives difficult. Although the drama is a reenactment of an event from long ago, it lives on in our minds as if it were still occurring. It can be triggered by stimuli from the present. And then once again we are caught up in the act of crushing our own birdlike spirit to save it from the monster in our minds.

Divinatory Meaning

Should the Nine Swords appear in your reading, it's time to save yourself. The monsters in your head may have been planted by your parents, your teachers, or a cruelly competitive culture. You can spend a lifetime tracking down the culprits and blaming them, or you can take the swords from their hands and kill the monster yourself. No matter their source, you are now both the big bad monster and the innocent little girl. And both are catching you up in that same tired old drama where the fearful little girl crushes your spirit. If you face your fears and start killing the monsters, you can begin to break this cycle and move on with your life.