THE EIGHT OF SWORDS, LORD OF SHORTENED FORCE

   Your ally stands in bondage on the seashore, surrounded by eight swords. Her bonds, however, are so loose that they seem about to fall off, and the swords, though long and sharp, do not actually imprison her. Behind her looms a castle on a cliff, but no one is guarding her. It appears that she could easily escape her bondage if she chose to do so. The castle in the distance suggests some authority that demands obedience or keeps people down by conditioning them to believe in their own powerlessness and limitations. The eighth sphere on the Tree of Life is the Sephira of Mercury, a God who “shortens force” through thought, and thought-forms can establish splendor (“Hod”) in the different levels of the psyche, but they can also create “mind-forged manacles” that bind us in unproductive and limiting--even self-destructive--behavior. However, on the level associated with the element of Air in the eighth sphere, the influences of Jupiter and Gemini can be felt as well. Jupiter is the God of expansive, orderly, upbuilding force, and Gemini is a zodiac sign that symbolizes the dual nature of the mortal and immortal within us. The vast sea next to your ally suggests the potential for expansiveness through contact with cosmic forces. The restrictions of the intellect in the material realm can blind a person to the creative expansiveness of the spirit, but for your ally, the bonds could be loosening and the blindfold could be about to fall off. Whatever “authority” put her in that position is off in the distance on a cliff. The influence of Jupiter could potentially liberate her so that, aware of the infinitude and magnificence and harmony within, she frees herself and lives an abundant spiritual life.

CORRESPONDING COLOR: Russet-red.

Reversed: freedom, larger perspectives, overcoming limiting beliefs