Okay, so I wanted to talk about my little dive into the number 9 cards in tarot. It wasn’t some grand spiritual quest, really. It started because I kept noticing them pop up. Seemed like every other reading, boom, a Nine. Swords, Cups, whatever. It got me thinking, maybe I should pay more attention to just these cards for a bit.
So, what I did first was pretty basic. I pulled out my old Rider-Waite deck – yeah, the classic one, kinda beat up now. I separated all the Nines: the 9 of Wands, 9 of Cups, 9 of Swords, and the 9 of Pentacles. Just laid them out in front of me on the kitchen table. Didn’t even look at the book right away. Just looked at the pictures, you know?
Getting Hands-On with the Nines
I spent a good few evenings just doing that. Looking at the guy with the bandaged head in the 9 of Wands, looking tired but still standing. Then the smug-looking dude in the 9 of Cups, all satisfied. The person sitting up in bed in the 9 of Swords – that one always felt heavy. And the lady chilling with her bird in the 9 of Pentacles, looking quite content on her own.
After just soaking in the images, I started thinking about the number nine itself. It’s like, almost ten, right? Almost the end of the cycle. That felt important. It felt like being on the edge of something finishing.
- 9 of Wands: Felt like that last push before a deadline. You’re knackered, been through a lot, but you gotta hold on. I remembered this project I had last year, totally draining, that card nailed the feeling.
- 9 of Cups: This one felt like getting what you wished for, but maybe being a bit… alone with it? Like celebrating a win by yourself sometimes. It’s good, but maybe not the whole picture.
- 9 of Swords: Pure anxiety, right? Overthinking late at night. I totally got that. Spent way too many nights worrying about stuff that never even happened. This card is like a picture of my brain at 3 AM sometimes.
- 9 of Pentacles: This felt like independence. Having your own stuff, your own space, being secure. But again, kind of solitary. Comfortable, but on your own terms.
Seeing the Pattern
What I really started to see was this theme running through all of them. It’s about getting close to the end of a journey for that suit. You’ve built up all this energy or emotion or worry or wealth, and now you’re in the final stages. There’s a sense of culmination, but also a bit of isolation. Like, the journey to that point was yours alone, in a way.
I started doing simple readings for myself, just asking stuff like “What’s the energy around finishing this task?” or “How am I feeling about my independence right now?” And I paid extra attention if a Nine came up. It wasn’t magic, but it helped me frame things. Seeing the 9 of Wands when I felt exhausted but close to finishing a tedious house chore actually made me chuckle and push through.
One time, I was stressing about finances, feeling really stuck. Pulled a card just asking for perspective. Got the 9 of Swords. Now, usually, that card freaks me out. But because I’d been sitting with it, thinking about it, it didn’t just feel like “doom and gloom”. It felt like the feeling of anxiety itself. It was like the cards saying, “Yeah, you’re stuck in your head about this, spinning out.” It didn’t magically fix my money worries, obviously, but it shifted my focus from the external problem to my internal reaction. Made me realize I was making it worse by dwelling on the fear.
Final Thoughts (For Now)
So yeah, that was my little experiment just focusing on the Nines. Didn’t discover any ancient secrets. But I found that digging into just one small aspect of the tarot, like the number 9 cards, and really connecting it to my own feelings and experiences made it way more useful, more practical. It stopped being just fortune-telling and became more like a tool for checking in with myself. It’s about that point where you’re almost there, reflecting on the journey and dealing with the final hurdles or results, often on your own. Pretty relatable stuff, when you get down to it.
