Google link:
https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B5yuZlzfve9GOGMwNmQ1YTAtZDU2Ni00MmQxLWFmZjktNjBiY2I0MDUzNzNj&hl=en

I really don't agree with your interpretation on this card. Where is the hope? The swords are a protective barrier too, keeping the blindfolded lady from the sea. You make it sound like the tarot is a doomsday book :(

Hi Cassie,
Life has up's and downs, I maintain a strict regime in reading upright and reversed. In the reversed orientation, this card promises a release from bonds. This does not happen overnight. As problems are created in every person's life, over a period of time, so does the mindset change, with it's physical influences as well.

If you fall ill, it takes time to heal, you have a prognosis, which gives hope or dooms you?

If you try to read my interpritations in the "upright" position only, you won't get the right result. But, whichever way you read, you will still arrive at a workable solution.

The number value of the Eights is in the Archetypal level of energy and points to a specific process, we can understand it being in the "beginning" of life, but transmitting hereditary characteristics from the sevens.

It is defined in the following;
"As we progress we see that each Aut (letter) is in a sense coming out of the previous Aut in a natural flowing fashion. Here we have in a sense the dim beginning of existence. Although still a seed and a first line element, Hhayt (8) represents the summing up or storage of the various possibilities represented by Zayn (7). It can be viewed as a pool of unstructured energies not specifying any state of energy itself. In quantum physics it is the sum over states, the wave function while Zayn (7) is the probability amplitude for a particular state. It is also the collective unconscious of Jung's psychology. But remember it is still unactualised as such because it is still in the seedling state."      Suares, Spectrograms

Going through the history of Tarot. It was never linked to the Kaballah, however we have A.E Waite and Crowley to thank for that. In this sense, we need to comply to the numeric passage of life in the Archetypal, uplifting to the Existential and eventually into the Cosmic. Reading the CC, we must keep im mind, how each letter and number value, progress into the next number. This is seen in the amplified "Jacob's Ladder".

How you apply your mind, is what will manifest in your life as Existing influences, clouding or clearing your mind, too actuate in your Cosmic relationship with the Ultimate Creator, and your future.

Blessed be.