The 8s ~
To learn, to escape,
to accelerate, to leave
Pentacles
~ It’s
all about learning something new, refining your skills, broadening your
knowledge. It’s about focus,
concentration, and dedication.
Apprenticeship,
trade, job, skills, learning, craftsmanship, opportunities
8/Pentacles ~ The little cobbler
in that infamous fairy tale is hard at work, head bent over his tools,
practicing his trade with great concentration, pride in craftsmanship, with
great ability and a terrific work ethic.
You’re either going to learn a new trade, you’re going to improve the
skills for a job you’re already doing, or you’re going to fly the employment
coop and go back to school to take a completely different path in life. Whichever scenario it is, know that you are
more than capable of achieving your goals, you’ve got what it takes… learn,
grow, expand, and thrive!
Reversed:
Sometimes this card means that you’ve lost
interest and enthusiasm for what you’re doing.
Sometimes this card means that there’s something else coming up for you,
a change of employment, a change in your craft, and you are just not aware of
it yet. Be forewarned. Sometimes this card just wants you to look at
your life, really look, and make sure this is where you want to be, this
is what you want to be doing. It’s time
for some self-examination.
My Personal Connection:
This card is all about your work, what you do
in life to make a living, to give your life meaning, to feel self-worth, to be
able to survive in a culture and society that centers around money as it
pertains to our sustainability.
What have I done?? To some this card explicitly points to jobs,
meaning employment outside the home, the labor you put forth in order to earn a
paycheck and to pay your taxes and fit into the pegs of modern society.
What have I done?… I was a stay-at-home
home-schooling mother for over 25+ years, raising seven children; I have
written books from the quiet confines of my shaded back porch and sometimes
from the purple coziness of my bed; I have developed websites, created an
online shop, made and sold hand-crafted products, and read the tarot for people
all over the world with the aid of modern technology, all from my kitchen
table.
What have I done?
The eight of pentacles tells me to embrace my
craftsmanship, my creativity, my perseverance, my self-taught capabilities. The eight of pentacles often shows it’s face
to me in order to let me know that I’m not done yet. There’s much more left to do, it just might
be time to turn the page and begin a new chapter.
Swords
~ It’s
all about feeling trapped and being blinded by your circumstances. It’s about being savvy enough to get yourself
out of compromising situations. It’s
about seeking freedom.
Bondage,
blindness, apathy, loss, self-esteem, manipulation, hopelessness
8/Swords ~ Oh my gawds, who hasn’t been the
character on this card? It’s all about
being physically or emotionally trapped by a relationship gone sour; it’s about
being trapped by family and friends and their expectations of us; it’s about
being trapped by financial circumstances; it’s about being trapped by society
and it’s rigidity and lack of imagination; it’s about being trapped by some
great big bogey man in the universe who wants to keep us from moving on, moving
up, moving forward. It’s all about all
these things that are holding us hostage in life. It’s all about feeling trapped by outside
influences we can’t control… or can we?
Reversed:
You’ve figured it out. When this card comes up reversed, you’ve
finally figured out how to free yourself.
And when you do, you’re going to say, “What took me so long? Why couldn’t I see the solution sooner?” It’s right there, right in front of your
face, and it has been the whole time.
You just had to pull yourself out of that tunnel vision you were caught
up in.
My Personal Connection:
I hate feeling trapped. I suppose everyone does. More often than not, the times in my life
that I’ve felt trapped involved relationships, or financial situations. It’s taken me years to realize that so many
of us, myself included, have actually built our own cages, created our own
prisons. And we are the ones who
have to find our way out.
Sometimes just the idea of having to take a first
step, having to make a first decision, having to step up to an individual or
something inside ourselves is scary and intimidating. Beginning to step out is the scariest part…
just beginning. Once you’ve begun, the
rest seems to come naturally, and then you will wonder – Why was I so afraid to
start? Why didn’t I do this sooner?
The eight of swords is an unpleasant looking
card, implying unpleasant circumstances.
The thing is, it’s often not as bad as it looks, and when it shows up
for you, it’s kind of saying… “Get moving!
You can’t stand there like that all day!”
Wands
~
It’s all about movement and speed, movement of people, ideas, situations,
conclusions, and options. It’s all about
the pace of life.
8/Wands ~ Hurry! Hurry up, the shit is going to hit the fan at
any moment. Your life is going to be
propelled forward at an alarming speed.
You’re going to feel the rush;
you’re going to feel the g-forces moving you mercilessly through your
existence at a hundred miles an hour.
You’ve been wondering when your life was going to pick up, when things
were going to start happening? Well, the
answer is yesterday. It’s that
fast. When this card shows up, hang onto
your hat, the race horse is out of the gate.
Reversed:
Patience is the key here. Nothing we really want in life ever seems to
happen fast enough, and when this card comes up, it’s going to seem even
slower. You will feel maddening frustration
at the slow motion movement of circumstances around you, of people around
you. Decisions and questions are left
hanging on the thread of procrastination.
All you can do is ride it out.
Normalcy will resume, time will accelerate. Really, it will.
My Personal Connection:
When I was about 12-years-old, I was sitting at the
kitchen table in my grandmother’s house while she was busy at the counter. I
was caught up in my own little world inside my head, as was (is) so often the
case for me. Suddenly she said, “I’m
going to have to put up a yardstick.” I
was puzzled, this was so out of the blue, there had been no conversation. So I asked, “What do you have to do that
for?” She said, “To see if you’re moving.”
I’m slow.
I’m slow to start things; I’m slow to finish things; I’m slow in the
middle of doing things.
This card depicting swiftness and speed, or
stagnation, suspended animation, or hesitation only reminds me of this. And it’s taken years for me to move past my
grandmother’s comment, her personal observation, to realize that my speed is my
speed. I do what I do in my own time,
and that’s the way it is.
“Learn to accept yourself.”… this is the
lesson I’ve received from the eight of swords.
Cups
~ It’s
all about knowing when to walk away, knowing when to stop trying. It’s all about being brave enough to turn
your back on something in your life that is destructive to you.
Leaving,
endings, severance, giving up, irresponsibility, abandonment, closure, finality
8/Cups ~ Know when to walk away; know when it’s
time, and it’s okay, to move on; know when it’s not all about giving up, it’s
about starting over; know that it’s not about defeat, it’s about changing
goals. This card comes up for me most
often in relationship readings. It’s amazing
how many people feel caught in a relationship they don’t think they can get out
of, or they’re beating a dead horse, trying in vain to sustain a relationship
that is already dead in the water.
People seem to be afraid to leave, whatever it may be that they’re
leaving; and people seem to be afraid of starting over. One door is just as scary and intimidating as
the other. Don’t worry, this card tells
us, everything is going to be okay. Now
move on, one foot in front of the other, and don’t look back.
Reversed:
You might be the one left behind. If you’re wondering how a set of
circumstances is going to go, or how a relationship is going to proceed, this card may be a bit troublesome for you. Sometimes this card simply lets us know that
someone has tried, really hard, to move on and they’re having some difficulty
with the process. Sometimes this card
points to a moment like this in someone’s past.
Read it with discernment, discretion, and a certain amount of sympathy.My Personal Connection:
Throughout a life time, we all have many
beginnings and endings encompassing a wide variety of life and it’s
circumstances. When you reach a certain
age (like my age, for example), you look back and you will be amazed (like me)
to realize that the memories of many or most of those endings are still stored
in your mind in vivid technicolor. The
thing is, that along with all those memories, some of which might be quite
painful or unpleasant, you will shockingly realize that the emotions that went
along with many of them are still there, intact, and just as defined and
vigorous as they were such a long time ago.
You will not be able to make peace with the
eight of cups until you make peace with those memories, those decisions, those
individuals of the past and put it to rest.
In other words, you haven’t really moved on until you can come to
terms with, or completely banish, those negative emotions. If you can’t do this, you may spend the rest
of your life looking over your shoulder at those two cups left standing
thinking, “What if?...”
Source:
The Ultimate Tarot Guide:
for Your Personal Tarot Journey
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