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Hyperfixation Tarot

Introduction (Swords)

The Suit of Swords is associated with decisions, conflict, intelligence, and the element of air. It’s the suit of mental clarity and reason. These concepts can be confusing when taken one at a time, but altogether they paint a picture of the suit’s energy.

What is Sword Energy?

Element: Air

Sometimes you’ve been stewing on a problem for a while, or you are studying something new, and you suddenly have a breakthrough. The breakthrough feels like the sun coming out from the clouds. It feels like the air has cleared. It is a feeling of sudden mental clarity and understanding.

This is the energy of Swords.

Like the element of air, there is an in-and-out duality to the energy of Swords. That feeling of mental clarity and the conclusions it brings can produce conflict in the outside world just as it is alleviating the conflict in your mind. Furthermore, the clarity of swords is often required in times of hardship, and the experience of the hardship can produce further clarity that helps us later on. Breathe in, breathe out. The motion of air is at work.

The Numbered Cards

The Suit of Swords exhibits a series of challenges where that mental clarity would be useful. The “difficulty level” of the challenge seems to scale as the numbers go up (compare the 2 of Swords, a card of inner conflict featuring a blindfolded woman balancing one sword on each shoulder, with the 8 of Swords, where the woman is blindfolded, bound, and surrounded by swords.)

I like to think of this as “the more complex the challenge, the more you need to face it, and the more that can be gained.”

  • Ace: The appearance of mental clarity
  • 2: A decision where you feel blind (a lesser challenge than 8)
  • 3: A heartbreak (a lesser challenge than 10)
  • 4: A need for rest (a lesser challenge than 9)
  • 5: Battles with privilege
  • 6: Moving away from bad situations
  • 7: Facing up to schemes
  • 8: Blind and bound (a greater challenge than 2)
  • 9: Anxiety and nightmares (a greater challenge than 4)
  • 10: Rock bottom (a greater challenge than 3)

The Court

The Court of Swords are highly recognizable as people you may have met (or been) on your intellectual journey. This is a group concerned with logic and rationality.

  • Page: The overly enthusiastic student
  • Knight: The skilled but argumentative experienced person
  • Queen: The wise introvert who really gets people
  • King: The intelligent rationalist and strategist