From Touchstone TarotTM by Kat Black
Eight of Swords
Meanings
Prisoner without a prison. Although you may stand blindfolded and bound, the ties are loose and nobody stands guard. Are you choosing to be a passive victim? Shrug off the ropes and take control.
Reversed (?)
Escape your bondage. You have torn off your blindfold and pulled away the ropes that bound you – now what will you choose to do next? Were you using the ties as an excuse for inaction? Then act now!
Description
A young woman in a black dress with white lace bodice and cuffs stands in a stormy landscape. She is bound in ropes and wears a blindfold, but the ropes are very loosely tied and the blindfold is semi-transparent. Eight swords are stuck in the ground and a black and white butterfly flies overhead.
Artwork
- Sword hilt, blade: GENTILESCHI, Artemisia, Judith Beheading Holofernes, 1612-21, Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence.
- Sword grip: VOUET, Simon, Magdalene, 1614-15, Palazzo del Quirinale, Rome.
- Stormy landscape: BERCHEM, Nicolaes, Jupiter Notices Callisto, 1656, Private collection.
- Girl: KEY, Willem, Portrait of a Lady, 1500s, Rockox House, Antwerp.
- Rope: ZURBARÁN, Francisco de, Meditation of St Francis, 1632, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires.
- Eye cover: FRANÇOIS, Guy, Holy Family with St Bruno and St Elisabeth, 1600s, Musée de l'Ain, Bourg-en-Bresse.
- Lace: BRONZINO, Agnolo, Portrait of a Young Girl, 1541-45, Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence.
- White butterfly: AST, Balthasar van der (aka BOSSCHAERT, Ambrosius the Elder), Basket of Fruits, c.1625, Staatliche Museen, Berlin.
