The Eight of Swords is a card of restrictions.

These restrictions may have been placed there by yourself or by others, and whatever the case, you are the one who will be required to lift them.

Once you understand this it can be surprisingly simple to begin the process of setting yourself free.

The first step is a change in attitude.

Is there something in your life that you feel is holding you back? Each time you try to set yourself free, you meet a brick wall.

Swords stand for thoughts and mental processes. The Eight of Swords is a card that gives the impression you are hemmed in by your own thoughts, usually negative in nature. Anything you can do to change your thinking will set the wheels in motion to release you from what is holding you back. Counseling, affirmations, positive thinking are all good places to start.

This card can be a warning that if you allow negative thoughts to hold power over you, then you will stay stuck, and things could get a whole lot worse. So you need to take control of the situation as soon as possible to stop this from happening.

Of course it may be that someone else is making you feel trapped, as if you cannot act, or free yourself from a situation. If this is the case, take a step back and logically look at what is being said and/or done to have you feel this way. It may be that you need to take yourself out of this person’s life temporarily, or permanently, to regain your own sense of worth.

The Seven of Cups denotes a situation, or inner state of mind, where things are not as they appear on the surface.

Confusion can be straightforward, as in you don’t know what to do or what to decide upon as the answers you seek are not clear, or it may be the type of confusion that comes from being inebriated.

Whatever it is you need to keep a few things in mind.

The confusion that you have may not be your own, it can come from someone else as they try to navigate through their lives and are not up to par on being clear. It can come from a loss of boundaries, or boundaries which are so loose that you don’t know where you stand, and every time you try get an answer from the other person you are pulled further into a web of what-if’s.

The best way to deal with the Seven of Cups is to put your foot down and draw a line under what it is that you do and don’t want. If you rely on someone else to do this for you then you may be in for a long wait. You are responsible for yourself. If anyone else is driving you crazy through their words and actions, you are the one who needs to take action and extricate yourself from the situation.

This card often comes up where there is alcohol or drug abuse by another and they are not making sense to you. You have to ask yourself “will they ever make sense to me?” and you then need to take stock of how much you have endured and are willing to endure.

Perhaps life was meant to be a box of chocolates and you were meant to be able to have your pick of your favourite flavour, but if you stay in a situation that this card portrays you will never know the answer to this.