The Prisoner ~ The part of me that’s trapped by stories I keep telling myself about what I can and cannot do.
Keywords:
Restriction • Perception • Liberation
Meaning:
The Eight of Swords stands blindfolded, surrounded by swords, convinced there’s no way out. But the bindings are loose. The path is clear. The prison is mostly mental. This card points to self-imposed limitation, the kind where I’ve built walls out of old beliefs, past failures, and fear disguised as realism. It’s asking me to notice where I’m acting like I have no choices when I actually do. Where I’m telling myself I’m stuck when I’m just scared.
The Eight lives in the space between actual constraint and perceived helplessness. Sometimes the situation is genuinely restrictive. But often, I’m standing in an open field convinced I’m in a cage.
This energy invites me to examine my thoughts about what’s possible. To question whether the limitations I’m experiencing are real or if they’re just stories I keep reinforcing.
The card isn’t about toxic positivity. It’s about clear-eyed assessment of where my power actually is.
Connection to Previous Cards:
Yesterday’s Six of Swords had me in the boat, moving away from rough waters toward calmer shores. Today, the Eight of Swords suggests I might have brought some mental prisons with me on that journey. The transition is happening externally, but internally I’m still trapped by old thinking.
Two days ago, the Two of Wands had me looking at the horizon with vision and possibility. The Eight of Swords is what happens when that vision gets clouded by fear and limiting beliefs. It’s like I saw what was possible, started moving toward it, and then my mind stepped in with all the reasons why it won’t work.
Earlier this week, the Empress reminded me about nourishment and abundance. The Eight of Swords shows me where I’m blocking my own access to that abundance by convincing myself I don’t deserve it or it’s not available to me.
The progression is sobering: vision, movement, then mental restriction. Now I have to decide if I’m going to believe the cage is real.
Actionable Advice:
The Eight of Swords is asking me to examine my thoughts about limitation. It’s about distinguishing between real constraints and self-imposed ones.
– Write down one area where I believe I’m stuck. Then list three small actions I could take today if I wasn’t stuck. Notice what becomes visible.
– Identify one limiting belief I’ve been carrying, about myself, my capabilities, my worthiness. Challenge it directly. Ask: “Is this actually true, or is this just familiar?”
– Talk to someone who sees me more clearly than I see myself right now. Ask them what they notice about my situation. Listen without defending my limitations.
– Take off one blindfold today, literally or metaphorically. Stop avoiding looking at something. Stop pretending I don’t know what I know.
– Do one small thing I’ve convinced myself I can’t do. Not something huge. Just something that proves the cage has an opening.
Shadow-Side Warning:
The shadow of the Eight of Swords is using victimhood as protection. I might cling to the story of being trapped because it absolves me from taking responsibility or risking failure. Watch for the tendency to perform helplessness while refusing actual help or solutions.
The Eight can also pull me into harsh self-judgment—berating myself for being stuck instead of compassionately examining why I built the cage in the first place. Another trap: mistaking awareness of the trap for escape from it. Knowing I’m mentally imprisoned doesn’t automatically free me if I don’t take action. If I’m invested in proving how stuck I am, or if I’m using my limitations as an identity, that’s the shadow talking.
Journal Prompts:
• WATER (emotions, relationships): Where am I staying in an unsatisfying relationship dynamic because I’ve convinced myself I have no other options?
• EARTH (grounding, stability): What’s one small way I could create more freedom in my daily life if I stopped believing it’s impossible?
• FIRE (passion, drive): What dream have I abandoned because I decided I’m not capable, and what if that’s not actually true?
• AIR (thoughts, communication): What limiting belief am I repeating so often it’s started to sound like fact?
• SHADOW (hidden self, integration): Am I attached to being stuck because it protects me from having to try and possibly fail?
Personal Journal:
The Eight of Swords arrives the day after I was moving toward calmer waters in the Six of Swords. Apparently I brought my mental prison with me on the journey. This card is showing me where I’m trapped not by circumstance but by my own thinking, by stories I keep telling myself about what’s possible and what isn’t.
The work today isn’t about positive thinking or pretending constraints don’t exist. It’s about honest assessment. Where are my limitations real, and where are they just familiar? The bindings are loose. The path might be clearer than I think. Today I practice taking off the blindfold.
Guiding Incantation:
The cage is mostly in my mind. The bindings are loose.
I question every limit. I test every wall.
My thoughts are not facts. My fear is not truth.
I take off the blindfold. I see what’s possible. I choose freedom.
If you find resonance in these personal tarot-based reflections, you can explore more of my work at www.oldtownwitch.
