Wheel of Change Tarot ~ The Eights

Genetti mentions repeatedly (as she does) that Eight is the number of "solar increase" and "reduplication (two times two times two)" . . . whatever all that means.

I see the link with the Sun, through the Pagan festivals (eight of them ) and I do see how each of these cards fit with her theme of "dispersion of energy -found in the seven - into the world".

\m/ Kat

Eight of Disks

This card has elements of pattern, season and connection to it. There is an feeling of sadness to this card, stemming from loss and darkness. The fallen leaves lie upon the snow forlornly, and the trees look so lonely under the brittle winter night sky. In Winter, people tend to feel more isolated and alone, and their worlds tend to shrink in natural response to the inclement conditions outside. So Genetti calls on the reader to examine their life, to identify and acknowledge the threads that bind each area of life to the rest – work, family, hobbies, spiritual pursuits. Each is tied to the rest, all are interdependent, and at the centre of it all lies the spider, the weaver, the creator of this life – you. By referring to the spider’s web as a tool, Genetti also implies that our lives are tools, tools we use to further our own desires and ambitions. Disks represent the concrete world, and the Eight of Disks shows the way that we influence the concrete world around us. It depicts the way we can create our own world by refining our “weaving”, thus projecting our Selves into the wider world.

Each web has a spider in its centre, with the symbol of a different phase of the Moon on its back. This is a gentle reminder that seasons pass, and the loneliness and despair so natural in Winter will fade with the strengthening Sun. The Moons wax and wane with reassuring regularity, and this rhythm can be very comforting. This, linked with the web as a metaphor for a person’s life, joins this card to The Chariot, and reminds us that we are the master of our lives, despite outside influences. This kind of understanding is the mark of a wise person, and in this way, the card calls to mind the High Priestess, very similar in imagery with its spiderweb and Moon symbols. Winter is a time to retreat within, to discover wider implications and links between things.

The colourful weaving in the foreground is an uplifting reference to the way that a life can be woven to express a person’s true Self, in the same manner as a person’s fashion sense expresses their sensibilities and personality. The richness and beauty of the fabric, in stark contrast to the bleak Winter night, remind the reader that despite hardship, beautiful things exist and happen. It also reminds us to weave our life to reflect our inner beauty, and this is a subtle link to the Queen of Swords, which is visually reminiscent of the Eight.

\m/ Kat

Eight of Wands

Because the number eight is linked to the Sun (because of the eight solar festivals of the pagan year), the Eight of Wands is an especially fiery card. Like the other Eights, it represents the energy of the Suit radiating out from the individual to affect the world around them. Here, in the Suit of Fire, that energy takes the form of a creative expression, a directing of the creative will to bring something to life, to enspirit it with the same spark of vitality that causes a human to be more than just a lump of carbon-based compounds. The individual directs the idea and the passion to create an artwork, in so doing utilising symbols and energies from all four Suits.

The artwork in question takes the form of the Wheel, here tamed and controlled and given the direction the artist intends. In this way it recalls the Chariot, where the Charioteer learns to master his or her Self and understand his or her own effect upon the world, and vice versa. This card exemplifies that energy and understanding being applied in a practical way in the real world. The fire trailing from the Wheel as it hurtles through artistic space expresses the artist’s feelings of momentum, inspiration and power over Self and the tools at his or her disposal. The Wands in the image – pencils and paintbrushes – recall also the Suit of Swords, urging the application of knowledge and careful measurement in the execution of the artwork.

The card’s links with the solar wheel associate it with the cards of the Fourth Level of the Tarot Tree, as well, where we see the Solar God turning through his life of the seasons. Wands themselves are phallic symbols, and hence call upon the God’s procreative power and draw that power down through the artist (in this case). This power is seasonal, and waxes and wanes according to a set rhythm. This tells the reader that there might be times when a person’s creative output is truncated or frustrated, but by accepting this cycle and putting energy into other endeavours, the person will be able to work within the inherent cycle and become more balanced within themselves.

\m/ Kat

Eight of Cups

In this card, the emotive energy of the Suit of Cups and the radiating force of the numeral Eight unite to speak of the elastic and varied roles we play in relation to the world around us, particularly other humans. The Yin and Yang elements of the card are perfectly balanced, but the stormy sea and thriving waterlilies show that the energy is in flux, never stationary. The interplay of different forces, the push and pull and give between the people around you . . . these things create the energies of your life. The card might counsel inspection and exploration of these forces, to see where there are imbalances, where you and another might be struggling to fill the same, rather than complementary, roles. This will result in conflict and loss.

Genetti’s use of the metaphor of “skin” for the surface of the planet, where masculine and feminine forces meet and interact, is especially powerful. This is the source of growth and possibility. Opposite energies might be inherently abrasive or conflicting, but eventually their interaction will bring about something beautiful and balanced. Hence, the card might highlight an area of stagnation, where opposing forces must be allowed to meet and come to balance. Though the card appears troubled and stormy, it shows that beautiful things can come of turmoil, if situations are allowed to settle to their natural interplay.

\m/ Kat

Eight of Swords

Genetti says this card is about shattered peace and inability to concentrate because of the physical world impinging on thought processes. But I think it’s about reality breaking into an insulated world. The chamomile plant represents calm and steady growth, but plants growing out their lives in greenhouses are vulnerable, never having been challenged by environmental hardship. Here, the baseball, symbolising the suit of Disks and therefore concrete reality, has shattered the illusory greenhouse, symbolised by the glass. There is a great sense of momentum with that flying ball, so this is some issue that carries within it great force and potential for change. It comes from a blue sky, without warning, on a clear, fine day, and shows the intrusion of a totally unexpected obstacle or change that must be dealt with.

The plant has grown in isolation, blissful ignorance, in its artificial terrarium world until now. But now, the real sun and real fresh air, the biting wind and darkness of night, are free to wreak devastation on the coddle plant . . . unless it can find the strength to fight back. Predatory insects will seek its soft leaves, until it can find the right compounds to leach into its foliage to drive them back. The plant is a metaphor for someone living in a dream world, refusing to acknowledge realities around them. The pot in which it grows represents the suit of Cups, symbolising the plant’s (person’s) self-containment and absorption in their own emotive reactions to the world. The plant, as a growing thing, calls the suit of Wands to mind; life will find a way, the plant will discover the appropriate growing and defence mechanisms for its new, challenging world.

Reality has struck. Self-delusions have reached a grand enough scale that the real world has dealt a rude awakening, leaving sharp edges to negotiate whilst also standing up to the challenges hitherto denied or ignored. Possibly, it is time for an honest admission of delusion. The artificial space inside your thoughts until now has allowed unrealistic decisions. Input from an unlikely source will bring you back down to Earth and encourage a more realistic chain of thought. Alternatively, it could indicate a flow of information the other way – trapped thoughts might now be allowed to filter or flood out into the world, through a violent break from an unexpected quarter. The seeker’s own ideas might be now allowed to flourish in the real world.

\m/ Kat