Shadowscapes - Eight of Wands

triple_entendre

Journeying towards a goal, a great undertaking, speeding to reward with hope and momentum.

With but the puff of a breath, she sends the seedlings on their way. It is the ending of the lovely flower that blooms so delicately into elaborate spheres of ethereal beauty, but the beginning of a new growth. The seeds spin away on the wild winds -- at the mercy of entropy, but sailing with purpose on their gossamer filaments. Sail away and beyond, and then set down to grow to become a mighty tree!


-- from Shadowscapes.com

This card shows a delicate figure standing on a cliff, wearing an orange gown and a lavender-colored breastplate or corset/bodice. She holds a staff-sized twig, and blows away the tufts of a dandelion gone to seed. She is flanked by foxes, tree trunks with faces, and underground beneath her feet: a green figure in a bubble, curled in a foetal position, as the roots of a green-stemmed shape reach into the bubble.

The RWS if I recall doesn't have a face in this card, but here the fairy woman stands. I think of the RWS 8-Wands as a warning for an attack or surprise development. To put a face to the energy leads me to consider that swiftness and complexity is part of a cycle of life, to roll with the punches so to speak, for there will be many but that's no cause to lose our wits.
 

crazy raven

As I read triple-etendre's description of the 8 of wands, I looked at the card which to me, seems to take place in the twilight hour, when our intuition and subconscious mind is free to travel in the astral plane. The right brain is associated with creativity and imagination and is also associated with the subconscious mind, which is said to be 10 times more powerful than the conscious mind.

Many famous people have written about their creative experiences and one that brings to mind is that of Henri Poincare, a 19th century French mathematician who described a sudden intuition that gave him the solution to a difficult problem.

Henri Poincare...."Every day I seated myself at my work table, stayed an hour or two, tried a great number of combinations and reached no results. One evening, contrary to my custom, I drank black coffee and could not sleep. Ideas rose in clouds; I felt them collide until pairs interlocked, so to speak,, making a stable combination. By next morning....I had only to write out the results, which took but a few hours."

AND another time....
"Disgusted by my failure I went to spend a few days at the seaside and thought of something else. One morning, walking on the bluff, the idea came to me, with just the same characterisitics of brevity, suddenness and immediate certainty."

To me the 8 of wands is a time of increased energy where we need to challenge or stretch ourselves to the next level. This card can also indicate a sense of restlessness of wanting to break free of what has limited, blocked or caused setbacks from moving forward. This could be a good time of travel or retreat to a place surrounded by nature, a place where we can work and commune with angels and nature spirits. There, we may feel more alive and energetic and find a way to channel our creative energy.

A warning with this card is to be wary of rushing into something too quickly. It can be both explosive and revitalizing. Sometimes we can overshoot our aim, too high, too quickly. This is why we need to take the time to listen to our most trusted friend(s), inner advisor, deities and guides....they will help us balance our energies, unclutter our minds and gain a new perspective of things.
 

Marlo

A warning with this card is to be wary of rushing into something too quickly. It can be both explosive and revitalizing. Sometimes we can overshoot our aim, too high, too quickly. This is why we need to take the time to listen to our most trusted friend(s), inner advisor, deities and guides....they will help us balance our energies, unclutter our minds and gain a new perspective of things.

I like this meaning a lot. The remaining seedling on the staff emphasizes your words. Why it is not blown away with the seven others ? Maybe it's kept there as a wise reserve of thoughts or material means in case the seeds spread in the wind fail or give small results.

However it can be pretty reckless to save so few possibilities. I guess this point shows the fiery temper of the Wands suit that can be very impulsive at times.

Another detail strikes my mind. The tuft above the one left on the staff. It looks smaller and faded. Probably it needs to gain some maturity before being "used".
That would only work if the staff were enchanted though. Some more sap would be needed to help it get bigger since the branch is cut off a tree.

I don't know what to think of the seedlings at the feet of the character. They seem already rooted. But it's more than likely that they will also be a part of the creative work made by the character.

About the small female figure in the bubble, it seems "fed" by some small tree roots. To me it shows the necessity of time and preparation before giving birth to something. In that sense, it involves the influence of the Coins suit that will help by giving the material shape to any idea.

Moreover, confidence is very present in this card as well. The female character gives a direction to her breath with her hand and she uses the wind that comes from the left of the card and that swirls around to finally mix with her own breath.

It shows the capacity to understand the environment and to take advantage of the energies around to put a plan into action.

The two foxes are also interesting, especially the directions they look at. The one on the branch is looking at the seedlings flying away while the one on the ground is facing the opposite direction by looking at something we can only imagine.

That point adds an unexpected side of the card. You can never control every factor in a plan since there is always some unknown hidden away...
 

CoffeeBlood

the image on this card is so similar to that on the queen of swords: both depict a female figure sending something off to the same direction of the card, they hold something in the same hand, are accompanied by 2 animals at their feet, and by plants.
the major difference is that the queen has a 3rd bird on her shoulder, and this female stands over the green figure in a bubble.

edit: i think this card also tells us to always be prepared with a backup plan. in this scene, the back-up plan [or plan B] is the bubbled-green figure. what if the seeds send out there don't find a fertile ground? not all hope is gone, as there is already one in a more advanced stage that can fulfill the purpose.