Welcome to Tarot for Scholars, a resource that helps you weave the deep wisdom of tarot into your daily life and work. In each post, we offer reflections and prompts for exploring your own inner world and unlocking the unique creative power of your scholarship.
8 of Swords
About this card
An invitation to reflect honestly on an experience of feeling stuck. Are you hemmed in by an actual external situation, or by your own thoughts? Are you paralyzed by too many choices, or are your circumstances genuinely beyond your control? Whatever the truth of your situation, making progress through it depends on pausing to gain self-awareness. You may not be as helpless as you feel.
Other interpretations
Margy’s cards, clockwise from top left: Radiant Tarot; New Chapter Tarot; Cosmic Slumber Tarot; Shining Tribe Tarot; Elemental Tarot; Navigators Tarot of the Mystic Sea; Spolia Tarot; Tarot of the Spirit.
Helen’s cards, clockwise from top left: Moon & Stars Tarot; Light Seer’s Tarot; Japaridze Tarot; Canes Arcanae; Star Spinner Tarot; Muse Tarot; Tarot of Mystical Moments; Forest of Enchantment Tarot.
Questions and prompts
What is a constraint you are currently working within as a scholar? Is it primarily external, internal, or both? Where do you see space for your own agency and choices within this situation?
In your work as a scholar, are you more likely to underestimate your agency and overestimate your constraints? Or to overestimate your agency and underestimate the constraints? Reflect on how the 8 of Swords can help you find a balance between constraint and agency in your work.
Imagine that a close friend or colleague is the person depicted in the image. What guidance or encouragement would you offer? Now, is there a way to offer that same wisdom and insight to yourself too?
Thanks for joining us for Tarot for Scholars! Your hearts, restacks, and comments brighten our day. 💫
Yours in scholarship,
HELEN SWORD is a scholar, poet, award-winning teacher, and founder of the WriteSPACE, an international writing community with members in 30+ countries. Her research-based books, articles, and online tools empower scholarly writers to write more clearly, confidently, prolifically, and with greater pleasure.
Visit Helen’s website here.
MARGY THOMAS is the creator of ScholarShape, a body of work dedicated to elucidating the patterns of Story-Argument across genres, disciplines, and life itself. Through services and DIY resources, Margy helps scholars use Story-Argument patterns to design their work — and to find its deeper meaning and higher purpose.
Visit Margy’s website here.
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