Nine of Swords

The three muses triple; in the Hermit’s cave nine goddesses appear before you, each bearing a gift of learning and inspiration. Through your time in seclusion you have gained the ability to attract the energy you need.

You have achieved much, but there is more to do. The Nines bring not only the promise of prosperity, but also the temptation of indolence.

Upright

• Despair
• Fear
• Complexity

You are lost on a mountain top, shrouded in a fog of suffering. This mountain is the sum of many smaller rocks; these things have accumulated around you and now impress upon your life. This impression may take the form of illness, bereavement, the negative influence of fellow travellers, or romantic disaster.

Your despair is a vulture circling about your head and then swooping upon you in search of blood. You must face this vulture and determine its true nature: is it a ghost, a self-created spectre which disintegrates in the light? Or is it something wholly more real?

Inverted

• Hope
• Release
• Unblocking

Look to the sky, for the clouds are parting. Blow hard into the sky to hasten their journey; a time of great struggle comes to an end, but only through effort and patience.

Perhaps it is time to shed the skin of behaviours that are no longer of use to you. Do not be afraid to cast aside preoccupations, for by removing them you release yourself from mental bondage, and create space for new attitudes.