Tarot Post – Nine of Swords

 

Nine of Swords (Cruelty)

 

Nine of SwordsNine of Swords (Cruelty) by G A Rosenberg

 

Waking to despair
Swords of fear pointed towards you
Acceptance brings hope.

 

Awake with the horror
of what may happen
of what did happen
and feeling unsafe
and unwell
frightened and lost
It’s all in my head
that does not stop the visions tho
Why do I do this to myself?
All these little things that can happen
I pick them apart and find still more.
self-doubt, anxiety
circle like sharks
hungry to feed
It all can be lost so easily.
What if it is?
What if every disaster
I can see so clearly
were to happen?
What remains when all
the fears have run their course?
— G A Rosenberg

 

The suit of Swords represents thought, ideas, plans and conflicts. The Nines represent a coming to completion of the energy involved if not the completion itself. These energies come together in that dark night of fear and anxiety. The night that many of us experience when we lay awake with every doubt, fear and recrimination that we can muster. During these nights we tear apart every event in the past and milk it for shame. We look at tomorrow and see every possible misstep that we can make, every disaster that can happen and every way in which we feel unsafe. We clutch at straws looking for temporary safety, fully realizing that that is what we do. Eventually we give up even trying to do that. It seems that only way through this dark night is eventual resignation to whatever is to come.

 

Astrological Correspondence – Mars in Gemini – This energy loves to keep busy. As long as there is a lot to do, Mars in Gemini will run around getting the job done, figuring out the next step on the fly all while engaging in vigorous debate on any subject with anyone they encounter. It is when it is in rest that the difficulties come. The same mental acuity that is used to get the job done turns inward and enervates itself in downtime. The same rapier with that it uses to win discussions and debates become poniards with which it stabs itself.

 

I Ching Correspondence – 6) Sung – Conflict –

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The Trigram for Heaven is over that of Water, two energies moving farther and farther away from each other leading to further rifts. This hexagram speaks of one who is always looking for conflict either with legitimate claims of injury or with an underhanded sneakiness and wit. When this is applied within, it leads to a constant undermining of the self where no matter what plan of action we have come up with, we immediately come up with all the ways in which it can fail. This can have its uses. If we know all of the possible arguments against our plan of action than we can learn how to counter them and avoid outer conflict. It is a matter of harnessing this energy in a positive way rather than using it to forever make us feel lesser than we are.

 

When the Nine of Swords turns up in a reading it often points to a lot of anxiety and sleepless nights. It can possibly be pointing to unresolved guilt from the past or a feeling that we deserve whatever abuse has come our way in the past. It can mean that we are going through what is known as the “dark night of the soul” where we are facing our shadow selves the most intensely. It may mean that we are torturing ourselves for the problems that caused a recent relationship to break apart. When this energy comes up for us, the best course of action is to let these feelings flow through because the more we feed them and try to argue against them, the longer and more intense the conflict may become.

 

The Nine of Swords reversed can mean that our inner conflicts have come to an end and we can now give ourselves a bit of a break. It may also mean however that we have been acting cruelly towards others perhaps without even realizing it. The Nine of Swords reversed may also mean that someone with cruel intentions is acting uncharacteristically nice to us to catch us off our guard.