9 of Swords

9 of Swords is a card of anxiety, fear, of lost sleep, and expecting the worst. It can feel really confrontational when it shows up in readings, but it’s important to remember that every card carries both a reflective element and a medicinal element within it. So while the 9 of Swords might show that you’re having the above experiences, it also offers the way through them. I think what all 9s in the Tarot ask of us is to make an inventory. I think of the Major card that’s numbered 9, the Hermit, and this archetype’s relationship to both self-determination, deliberate action, *and* the ability to navigate through darkness. The Hermit’s lantern casts a pool of light on one thing at a time, which is why it speaks so strongly to intentionality and pacing. In the 9 of Swords, we can draw upon these qualities to shine the light of our awareness on each of our fears in turn. Instead of being the figure hiding their eyes from the shadow-monster in the corner, we can aim our light upon it to determine that it’s just a pile of laundry. And we can do this with each of our fears one by one, literally writing them out so that they become pinned down under the light of our awareness rather than growing in our imaginations (and we’re working here well within the realm of swords, which has to do with the written word, our consciousness, and our imagination!). Make a list of “what-ifs” and see if they begin to recede like shadows. 

8 of Wands

8 of Wands is a current of energy. As the only card in the Minor Arcana* that doesn’t show a person (or a part of human anatomy—looking at you 3 of Swords), it tells us that this movement and momentum, this push of energy, is largely beyond our control. However, the alignment of these wands also tells us that it’s in our best interest. Things here are literally ‘lining up’ and ‘falling into place’. Our ‘job’ when 8 of Wands comes up is to surrender to it. This is an energy that doesn’t last forever, but if we can drop into that current then we can be pushed towards something beautiful. 8 of Wands asks us to remain hopeful, and to notice opportunities to say YES (and then say “yes!”). 

*at least in the most popular Tarot deck, the Rider-Waite-Smith, which has heavily influenced the illustrations of basically all modern decks. Many earlier decks had ‘unillustrated’ minor cards, similar to playing cards. The Sola Busca Tarot is the earliest known deck (we’re talking 15th century) with illustrated minors, plenty of which don’t show human beings, but this deck doesn’t have the influence of the RWS in modern Tarot culture. 

Page of Cups

Pages in the Tarot invite us to get curious. Some decks have renamed them ‘students’, and they approach things with a beginner’s mind. They’re often referred to as youthful, which has nothing to do with age, but with their whole attitude towards life. I don’t believe Pages are naïve, but they are certainly not jaded. When we are working with Page energy, we are open to reimagining what is possible, and open to the reinvention of our experience. Page of Cups then, could be considered the ‘student of the heart’. We can sit with our feelings here with a non-judgmental curiosity about what they have to tell us. Cups are the suit of water, and I often imagine feelings rolling in and out like the tide. This Page wanders up and down the shoreline, delighted with the treasures the tide has brought in. Bits of memory, old hurts and resentments like fragments of shell and sea glass. This Page gathers them all up and marvels at the stories they have to tell. Page of Cups offers us so much healing, because they come to the heart without an agenda or preconceived ideas about what things mean. They allow us to metabolize old wounds so quickly because they can reframe through play and story, art and song. When this Page comes up in a reading it can indicate the need to process experiences creatively. It can also suggest that you take your inner child out to buy a set of Legos, or whatever it is that allows that tender emotional self to feel safe and nurtured.