Eight of Wands

I’m not patient. Never have been. As a child, I yearned to grow up. I couldn’t wait to make decisions on my own and live according to my own rules. 

I’m impulsive and decisive. If I have an idea, I act on it immediately. Luckily, I can usually live with whatever decision I’ve made. It’s possible that some of this is a coping strategy for an ADHD brain. When there are things on my to-do list, I have to do them right away or I’ll forget about them entirely. This is why I’m terrible at email and text: if I look at something and think “I’ll respond to this later,” I’m almost guaranteed to wake up in a cold sweat two years from now remembering that I never responded.

I’m also an interrupter. This is a terrible part of my personality and one that I’m in a constant quest to fix. As a kid I would frequently be pulled aside by teachers who reminded me that listening is as important as answering correctly. Post adult-ADHD diagnosis, I recognize some of my rude interrupting behavior as a coping strategy, a way to keep the thought in my brain for just long enough to come out of my mouth. There is a speed and energy to the way that I operate — a combination of New England workaholic ethic, ADHD, and being raised by parents from enormous families (my dad is one of seven, my mom is one of five — in a big family, interrupting is the only way to ever be heard). Just know that if I interrupt you, it’s usually because I’m so excited by what you’re saying that I’m bursting to contribute. (This is a bad excuse, I know it’s an unattractive quality, and I promise I’m working on it!)

There have been a few times in my life where I have experienced a creative burst of manic energy, as if I am a conduit rather than the author of an idea. This feeling is exhilarating, a creative flow state that feels like surfing a wave. Usually, the excitement and adrenaline are accompanied by a sense of growing dread. This feeling cannot last. It will end, and when it does, I will usually be completely depleted, exhausted, and sometimes I’ll succumb to one of the many disgusting viruses my kids regularly bring home from school. This is the energy of the Eight of Wands, and it’s almost always followed by the experience of the nine and ten of wands (more on these in the coming weeks, but think: limping to the finish line and burnout). 

I’m an extreme person, and I have a hard time moderating in all things (see: my relationship to alcohol). If you draw the Eight of Wands in a reading, this card is telling you “strike while the iron is hot!” “don’t delay!” and “do it right now!” The Eight of Wands is a fiery card, and like fire, this energy can burn you if you let it. There’s an unwieldiness to the eight of wands, a speed and velocity that is not entirely of your own making. If you're not careful, the energy of this card will burn up quickly and leave you feeling depleted. 

When I’m in an Eight of Wands state of mind, I remind myself that good work takes time and I should pace myself, but the allure of speed and the intensity of that burst of creativity is hard to resist. Sometimes, I just let myself ride it. Eight of Wands is the hyper-focused state of ADHD, mania, creative inspiration, a burst of energy and excitement.

As I mentioned last week, there’s a sinister eight of wands feeling to this election season. Trump’s re-election seems to have swept the country in an impulsive and decisive way. Plenty of voters think Trump’s a fascist and voted for him anyway. A ton of people voted for Trump and reproductive rights. An enormous number of AOC’s voters also voted for Trump. It’s easy to say this is because of misinformation, bigotry, or stupidity, but I think that’s wrong (although certainly those things were all at play). The mood in the country is fiery — people are suffering and angry and they want to burn shit down. They voted for disruption to the status quo. They see Trump as a disruptor, which of course he is (in all of the worst ways).

Unfortunately, I’m sure that what follows is not going to address the problems people are facing. Trump positions himself as a disruptor, but he’s not going to disrupt the thing that is actually destroying Americans (capitalism). Trump is not actually a disrupter (except when he’s trolling the American people with cabinet picks, each new appointment worst than the last). He’s a rich narcissist who cares about power, self aggrandizement, and enriching himself. 

Not to be an absolute woo-woo LA witch about this (but to thine own self be true), but in this eight of wands moment, the way to counteract fire, is to lean on the elements of the other suits. We need cups (relationships, community, empathy), swords (truth, conflict), and pentacles (staying grounded and present) to get us through.

Also, revolution. We’ll probably need a working class revolution.