Eight of Swords

The Eight of Swords quote

"Feel the fear and do it anyway."
~Susan Jeffers

Meaning upright

Not knowing what you need, closing yourself for your situation, fear, feeling trapped, letting others limit you, under the influence of certain others, being stuck because of tradition, being locked up (also prison), fear of what is coming towards you, fear of what others are thinking of you, belittling yourself, low self-esteem, constraints, untrustworthy friends, hanging on to the past, old pain, invalidity, not being able to believe in yourself, shy, not applying knowledge, refusal to stand up for yourself. 

Meaning reversed

Breaking free from oppression, releasing fear, seeing what is really happening, break through, sadness over what was, freedom, developing respect for yourself and self esteem, letting go, looking forward, more space for moving about.

The Eight of Swords in your reading

The card of the lady inside the eight swords is the symbol of fear. Fear of what? Of being yourself? Of voicing your opinion? To show who you really are?

Fear can be a strange ally. It can prevent you of making mistake or get yourself in danger. Then you make use of it in a positive way. But often it can also keep you from living your real life. In a way you need to make use of your fear to start doing what you need to do and want to do so badly. What is worse than conclude at the end of your life: “I wish I …” Take a good look at what you fear and what you feel. Is it fear for your life or is it something else? Don’t ever let fear keep your from following your passion. If that is happening you’re doing something wrong.

Don’t keep yourself from being yourself but release yourself from your bonds. Your prison is less closed than you think so create in your mind how your freedom looks like. Feel the fear that you’re feeling but don’t let it stop you who you really are.

Sometimes prison isn’t much bigger than you own mind.