"Smile, breathe, and go slowly." - Thich Nhat Hanh
Element of air power: The Nine of Swords is often associated with fear and anxiety, often enough that you may feel roused from your deep sleep, stressed and concerned about what you fear. These fears can be unresolved worries about people in your life, ideas, plans and thoughts.
Sometimes this card can be associated with trauma or unresolved psychological issues that come to the surface. Although the nine swords are displayed for you to see, as an element of air they are not shown in an activity. This means that you have the power to decide how you look at these swords. Remember, they are only a display of your inner wounds that you need to heal.
How do we address our anxieties and fears without them escalating? Oftentimes, this card suggests that the fears are not as terrible as they appear to be. You may be struggling with guilt, remorse, insecurity, trusting your partner, or mental health issues. You’ll need to understand for yourself whether these feelings are truly rational.
Anxiety may be causing you to avoid looking at the problem and facing it head on, but if you took the effort to open your eyes in seeing it only for what it represents, you may find that you can work through these issues in a logical, less emotional state.
At times of imbalance: You must understand that this suffering will not cease until you yourself put in the effort to let go of it. It is important to ground yourself and to face the honesty and truth about the situation. There is much work that you must do to drag yourself towards release. But just as you have a way out, you must understand that you can still fall deeper into despair. Your job is to avoid that fearful expectation. If you push forward you may find the truth yourself, but if you do not, you may find yourself sinking deeper .
Medicine: The key to address the wounds from our past that cause us anxiety is to face them with absolute honesty. This is the most important step towards healing the self.
In cases where it is less about trauma and more about general anxiety, analyze yourself and ask if this is a feeling that is within your control or if there are other factors that contribute to your anxiety. Concentrate on the matters which you can control, and learn to ask for help. If you are unable to ask for help, self healing can also require one to take walks in nature so that it is possible to find perspective.
Mantra: Every day I am able to resolve my anxieties with much ease.
