The Eight of Swords

Trapped, or are you?

Upright

Blind and bound, but with the resources to cut yourself free.

Reversed

Upcoming release from a situation in which you feel trapped.

This is the card of feeling blind and bound, suffocated and trapped and blinded by the sheer volume of emotions and/or events. You may have a feeling of suffocation and panic, but the problems themselves are solvable. You have the resources you need to get out of this. The figure on the card has eight swords surrounding them that they could use to cut themselves free. This is simply a phase of restriction, and one that you have the potential to pass through with what you have.

When reversed, the card indicates upcoming liberation or release from the situation in which you feel bound. This might be emotional release (catharsis) or true release from the situation as a whole. Either way, you should soon experience a Swords moment of clarity as your bonds and blindfold fall away.

Note that this card echoes the Two of Swords, where the figure is also blindfolded, but is holding the swords and seems to know what to do with them. The blindfold there indicates more impartiality than blindness, though being overwhelmed can still be a connotation of that card. The Eight of Swords is a bigger challenge than the Two of Swords, where we simply choose between two choices that are difficult. In the Eight, we cannot even see our choices and we may have difficulty handling them.