Here we have the card of being one’s own worst enemy, in how we can terrorize ourselves into paralysis. As Eleanor Roosevelt, once said “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent”. What we think and what we feel and how we respond to the actions of others, can cause far more damage than the actual attack itself. The suit of Swords is of the element Air, and influences thoughts, reasoning, perception, basically how we THINK. If this card comes up in a reading it may be telling us to start thinking in a whole new way, one that liberates us from victimhood and transforms us into the STRENGTH card of the Major Arcana. Be strong and come out from the dark and cut the cords that bind and blind you.

The Rider-Waite card shows a young female in a skimpy gown, blindfolded, and bound. She stands petrified on a rocky shore and she is hemmed in by eight swords behind her. She appears stuck, however, we can see that she could so easily walk away from the situation as her feet are not bound. This card says that “there may be a situation that you could so easily walk away from”. It also indicates old and outworn thought patterns holding you back. It can also show a situation where a game or joke has turned into a reality. This can be ridicule that hurts, the message of this card is “If you always do what you have always done, you will always get what you always got”.

Tarot Insider Tip: In freemasonry part of the ritual is to be ‘Hoodwinked’. This is wearing a blindfold and symbolizes being blind to what is going on in reality. A. E. Waite, the designer of the Waite-Smith deck, was a Freemason.