regarding the eight of swords:
The clue to this card is the blindfold - symbolizing confusion, oppressive ideas, isolation from other people in similar situations; what political liberationists call 'mystification' - keeping people down not by direct force, but by training them to believe in their own helplessness. In that remarkable way the Tarot has of summing up a complex situation the card can almost stand as a diagram of the oppressed condition
