9 of Swords

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 14 Mar 2005, and now archived in the Forum Library.

fotofile2002	14 Mar 2005
How do you guys interpret the 9 of Swords ? I know it is traditionally the nightmare card and fear and anxiety card. It seesm to come up for me when I feel a lack of control in my life and my anxities are high. I'm curious to see what others think of it.

Thirteen	14 Mar 2005
9/swords can go two ways: On the one hand, being swords and of the mind (traditional RW interpetation there), it's about all the anxieties you just can't keep out of your head, the ones either keeping you awake at night or infultrating your dreams. Words as well--all the things you said, or didn't say, or should have said, or that were said to you that you can't stop thinking about. On the other hand, this card can, on the positive side, indicate a waking up from nightmares. 9/Swords often implies that the reality may not be nearly so bad as those bad dreams. The anxieties DO have a real foundation--this is not, as with certain cup cards, an illusion card. You have every right to be afraid or worried or unable to get those cutting words out of your head. But at the same time, they are in your head. And you're giving them more power over you than they may warrant. So the card could also be saying that you will wake up and put the things into perspective. See them in the light of day, rather than in the wee hours when everything seems so overwhelming and hopeless.

WalesWoman	14 Mar 2005
Tonight is a 9 Swords night...just can't shut off the thoughts, just can't let go of whatever it is that causes me to lay in bed watching the clock change numbers. I'm not worried, I'm not anxious about anything I can think of, just can't shut off my mind, insomnia. So maybe it's the inability to relax and let go, just letting the thoughts roll around and go in circles and bump into each other...like bumps in the night that make you nervous and twitchy. maybe it's re-running events, as if you could change something and make it be different...if only...like that will help. Maybe it's a lack of courage to shut your eyes and tell the Boogy man to bugger off, lack of faith that what will happen will happen the way it needs to with or without worrying about it. The main thing that keeps coming to me is...it is a sign that something needs to be let go of, and the outcome will be large bags under my eyes and a headache in the morning if I don't.

psychic sue	14 Mar 2005
This card can also be linked to depression or other mental illness.

Cascade	14 Mar 2005
Sometimes this card reminds me that I'm starting to live in my head. That I'm frustrated that nobody understands me because it's only the way I see it. To stop worrying so much, do some psychic surgery on my fears, and use the swords as a ladder to get out of bed or you'll be stabbed in the back in the 10.

Imagemaker	14 Mar 2005
Quote: You have every right to be afraid or worried or unable to get those cutting words out of your head. But at the same time, they are in your head. And you're giving them more power over you than they may warrant. This really hits for me for a 9 swords in "outcome" that I recently got. I had been overwhelmed with both emotional and physical suffering and was dismayed to get this card. But I also determined that I was NOT going to be stuck there, so have been working with writing, meditation, affirmations, and exercises to shift the bad stuff out. And most of it has left (relief!) So in being determined to take my power back from those anxieties, the card now makes sense. And this morning I got the Sun card in my situation position. Yay!

Elven	14 Mar 2005
I have to agree with psychic sue - I have often seen this card with the moon and have found people to have deep emotional worries and depression. Elven x

rhinoa	14 Mar 2005
To me it has a couple of different meanings. The obvious one about someone having difficulty sleeping, nightmares, headaches and stress etc. It is something that is very much in their own head though and they can escape it anytime they wish to (very much like depression). It also has positive meanings to me. It is a card I used to pull quite a lot as my daily card and I got to quite like it. It always reminds me that you can get a lot of inspiration from deams. I generally used to assume the worst from looking at this card, but now I also remember that many scientific discoveries have been made in dreams eg. the structure of benzene was discovered from a dream about a snake eating its tail (it is a ring structure). So I also see it as taking inspiration from dreams as well.

MercyMe	14 Mar 2005
The image in the Hudes deck is of a woman crouched in almost the fetal position with the nine swords aimed over and around her head, pointing at her. The author of the companion book says the trick is to mentally turn those swords around, each one, so they're no longer endangering your psyche. Which may take some time, granted, but once they're no longer pointing at you, you can actually take hold of their hilt and use them productively if you choose. ~Mercy

Fudugazi	14 Mar 2005
9 is the most dynamic of all numbers - not for nothing was the ennegram said to be a perpetuum mobile; when 9 affect our thoughts, the risk is we become febrile with the movement, with the lack of stability. That is the element picked up by Patricia Colman when she drew her 9 of Swords; but it is only one way to see that card. The other is - as many have said here - a call to empowerment against this fear of movement and change. I have often drawn this card during times of crisis and change, and always to reflect the fears that wake me up sweating ("I won't make it, it's too hard, I shan't be able to afford it", etc.); but a the same time I see the card as containing the remedy for its own ills - our mind. Imagemaker gave a graphic account of how she has used the 9 Swords to cut through a period of pain. I think the key to this card is to work on our fear of change and crisis - if we learn to let our minds go with the flow of change, and use the dynamism of the nine to create (rather than just react), the 9 of Swords can become a tremendous ally. I love the idea of using dreams as well - thanks for that reminder. Dreams (and nightmares) are one of my sources of inspirations. Another thing - when I see all this darkness on the card, something in me reacts, and I think - "lighten up, don't take things so seriously, laugh" - and generally it works.

The 9 of Swords thread was originally posted on 14 Mar 2005 in the Using Tarot Cards board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Using Tarot Cards, or read more archived threads.