9 OF SWORDS - NOT SO FOREBODING?

The suit of Swords deal with the intellect, but this suit is engulfed also with more of a cold feeling. Generally, it has an air of calculation and "to the point." This card is called the "3 a.m." card because it demonstrates very accurately that you will wake up in the middle of the night, cannot fall back to sleep, and you're at a high level of anxiety. This card indicates a "habit" of worry, that you're worrying over inconsequential things that don't warrant this kind of attention. Since this is a minor arcana card, the situation is merely temporary but still uncomfortable in its suffering.

So it not only means worry in the nighttime, but it indicates late nights up and about. So external events proably trigger the stress, but the big issue will be how you respond to it. That's what you must focus upon. If you're awake in the night unnecessarily, then you must be feeling a bit overwhelmed (too much to do, too many details on your mind). Sometimes it appears in readings with higher levels of anxiety, panic disorder, depression, insomnia, nightmares -- different interpretations of this card -- and a perfectly reasonable resultant from such things as educational responsibilities, not enough time, boredom, money worries, fear of failure). And the list can go on.

As an aside, the number "9" is also a card of "near completion" of a cycle. So these 3 a.m. bouts will come and go.

It is also said by some Tarot readers that the points of the swords in the card's image, running off the edge of the card -- in other words, you don't see the points of the swords in the image -- this means that these 3 a.m. nights might not be determinable at this time. It's very useful at this time to draw an identifier card with this. Perhaps a source of the energy may be apparent then.

There is a strong sense here (in looking at the design of the quilt -- roses for mystery and the astrological signs) that the root cause of these haunted feelings rest in powers much greater than what you can control. Most likely they were inevitable or some may say "written in the stars."