Eight Of Wands

ready, set, now or never
horizon close and sky too low
take a straight line in any direction
stretch out hand, foot, eye -
- go
go past the dark and see no walls
go cut the wind, be storm, be light
go find your new destination
go be the journey, be the -
- flight


I haven't done this in a while, so my verse sucks worse than usual, but the picture here - eight abstract figures, lining up to a vanishing point, as if preparing for a race - is evoking the base laws of nature. The figures are identical in form, only shrinking in size towards the vanishing point, and they make me think of photons, and the world's only real speed limit: c.

Eight is the last, hardest turn; between those crazy sevens and the bloodyminded nines; the Eight of Wands is fire in motion, with it all finally figured out and on the go. Traditional readers might say it symbolises travel; perhaps so, but as much of the soul as of the body. If you just changed your mind and are throwing your life into something new and exciting, you might find yourself here. Mind you keep a foot on the ground, though.

(The Intuitive card came out of the deck firmly attached to the Empress, btw. What's with that?)


Images of the Eight of Wands

The Eight of Wands is one of very few RWS cards that includes no human figure (offhand the only others I can think of are the four Aces and the Moon). That implies a lack of humanity - and a lack of human frailty - in the energies symbolised here. Smith's design speaks of flight, and perhaps of the sky and the eight directions of the wind - prior to the RWS, Wands were associated with air and Swords with fire, and there's a dose of the former element here.

The Osho Zen card is Travelling, one of the more simple in the deck; the mountains imply a difficult road, and it seems to be close to nightfall, but I for one see a lot to look forward to in that picture.

In the Medieval Scapini, a comic-like story is told; for some reason I read it bottom-to-top, and see two lovers speaking coyly, then dancing, then moving apart. It can equally be read top-to-bottom, with the two meeting in a wild dance and then settling down to canoodle. That's the trouble with the Eight of Wands - you never know if you're running from or running to.