Eight of Swords, Nine of Cups, and the Empress
All upright, and all from the Pride Tarot.
The Eight of Swords (by Liz Huston) pops up again. Blinded and bound, the central figure is surrounded by the points of eight swords. Negative thoughts keep her from doing anything. The trick is, of course, that the bounds are loose, and with some effort, you can free yourself from this cage. But you have to see the way out; that is the hard part. Don’t forget, you have help.
The Nine of Cups, by En Tze, I think, colors the whole reading. Nine of Cups is, traditionally, about wish fulfillment. The card reflects this in a way. The phases of the moon are in the nine cups, with the full moon in the center, representing manifestation.
But she is a witch, and witches are forces of change. This isn’t about wish fulfillment; it's about what you need. [Grabs dusty tome off my shelf] The best description of a witch is from the Book of Symbols: Reflections on Archetypal Images, p. 702
"Yet even at her most frightful, [. . .] the witch is always at the vital center of things. She breaks stasis or purposefully creates it. She sets things in motion, stirs the pot, is instigator and matrix of fateful odysseys and transformations. And if she manifests in our stupefying tendencies—the regressions that arrest possibilities of growth—she is also the weird earth of our restoration. She makes things so intolerable that we are forced to break the lock. She scares the life into us."
Instead of wish fulfillment, this version of the Nine of Cups asks you to consider what you actually need. What will help or shock you out of your Eight of Swords? Those incessant negative thoughts that have you pinned down.
Remember: don’t feel shame for not knowing what you want. Human life is complex, and to question what you want or change it is simply natural.
The final card in the trio is The Empress by Holly Sierra. The Empress can have meanings of motherhood and fertility, but when paired with the Eight of Swords and the Nine of Cups in this way, this is about sensuality. I know, I said sensuality, and you immediately think of pleasure, but we aren’t talking about just that. Focus on what your body is feeling and what that can tell you.
The cards invite you think about how your mind and body might be misaligned. So often, we use our minds to push past our bodies' limits. Our society pushes that narrative. Are you sick? Keep going to work. Are you in pain? Well, that’s just weakness leaving the body. This is not always a healthy attitude. What does your body actually tell you? What is working, and what do you need to leave behind? What is locking your mind in place from making the change?
One of the best ways to incentivize change is to feel the changes in your body. Feel better after a week of yoga? You’re more likely to continue. Take this moment as an opportunity to bring change, and really interrogate what that means. What do you need to do to listen to your body and then act upon it?
