The prison in which I’m stuck is only voluntary.
VIII of Swords Spell
I know why the caged bird swings.
It's got no feathers.
It has no wings.
But its heart still wants to fly
up high,
among the clouds, among soft things.
I know why the caged bird sings.
Wrought-iron bars can’t cage in dreams.
A voice still shimmers with glints and gleams,
even if the songs are dirges and requiems.
The swords have spoken...
On the inside and the outside, I'm broken.
In the mind, the problems are pointy—
but outside, they're larger and might destroy me.
So still here, I'll be swinging.
My forlorn melody I'll be singing.
My voice will be ringing.
My soul will be stinging.
Pity, party of one, I'll be bringing.
For I think I'm trapped;
my childhood kidnapped.
There's no way out of this
room of pendulums and pits...
I'm restricted in this prison—
I'm the abused; I'm the victim.
My mind can only depict
a world that can only afflict.
But if only I’d stop to look around,
instead of weighing myself down,
I'd see eyes surround me,
waiting for me to agree:
I'm more than my story.
There's more to my glory.
Can't I see?
The prison in which I'm stuck
is only voluntary.
I can leave any time—
because I'm already free.
Keywords & Card Content
KEYWORDS: SURVIVAL PATTERNS, SELF-IMPRISONMENT, INNER LIBERATION
IMAGE
Eight sits on a swing inside a birdcage. Five swords from the floor of the cage. Three more wait for her if she chooses to leave. A crimson evil eye patch covers one eye, but many more eyes see. Even with all this sight around her, she still seems blind. The door is open, but she refuses to notice. Instead, she sits and swings, resigned to her fate.
Will she ever remove the patch and realize she isn’t stuck?
DIVINATORY MEANING
Eight mirrors the infinity symbol when upright— suggesting a beginning ending and an ending beginning. Cycles are never-ending. The cycle in your mind right now is one that needs to break. Something very painful— gut-wrenching— has happened, and you’re still reacting as if you’re in danger.
You might feel trapped, like a helpless victim, but you aren’t. You’re stuck in survival patterns from the past—but you don’t have to stay there. Get out of that negative headspace before your situation turns entirely dark. Even surrounded by swords, there, or did someone force you behind its steel bars? Either way, you don’t have to remain—swinging and singing.
Your feelings might not seem like a choice because of the trauma. They’re real. But the story they’re braided into can be unbraided. You don’t have to keep them tangled. Even the worst of situations can be escaped. Get out of there and find solace in this: your mind might feel like a cage, but it also holds the key.
It’s all within you. Just open your eyes and see what awaits.
EIGHT’S INSIGHT
Sometimes our circumstances are so harrowing that it takes every cell in our bodies to gather the energy to move.
And you’re moving.
The limiting inner critic isn’t being obeyed anymore because you understand it’s not even speaking about you. It’s an old record stuck in a bad groove, blathering on about someone else.
Even if the voices you hear are the toxic ones your parents, guardians, or teachers built inside you— you can destroy them at any moment. Shrink those bullies. Flick them out of your way.
You don’t need to hear that sad, poor-me song anymore. If you’re going to sing something, make it an anthem of your bad-assery.
Hit the floor and head for the door.