Two of Swords

Here sits a woman, eyes bound, holding 2 swords across her body. I often ask people who draw this card to cross their arms like she is doing, and see how tight they feel, how difficult it is to breathe. This is a woman whose defenses have become part of her problem, and are tragically making her more vulnerable than she would be if she just put the swords down.

The two of swords symbolizes a person or situation where truth or reality is denied, where people are kept at arm’s length. Instead we hide our distress and become defensive. The woman in this image is avoiding the truth, refusing to look at facts and pretending everything's fine. She feels afraid to act and she’s stuck.

But I always assure the person drawing the card that the situation is not irrevocable. If the woman is willing to lower her defenses a little, put the swords down, take the blindfold off, she may well find that there is no imminent attack, instead she’s so used to protecting herself that she was pushed all her support away, but now that the swords are down she can welcome them back.

The Inner child cards have more movement, at least there are 2 people engaging here, but they are both protecting tiny piles of rock from which no life can grow. So sometimes the battle is not worth winning, and we have to look at the situation closely to see what it is we are protecting and if it worth our time and energy.