8 Batons - how may it be read?

The eight batons stands in contrast to both its preceding card and its successive one in that these adjacent cards bear no flower (this it shares with, of course and as an example, the six).

The flowers certainly call to mind the ensuing aridity of the nine, but here note their blossoming. If eight can often (at least by myself) be seen as abundance and the number of the cornucopia, then this card may very well at times suggest a basket of plenty.

The flower already appears to have its petals drooping, revealing that which delights not so much the olfactory sense (that is probably more apt in the six), but to the salivating glands.

In a reading, it may be that this sense of abundance of the fruits of the Earth, or growth supported by the natural environment, may also come to the fore...

Attached is the Conver.

Eight can be seen as a number of karma and truth and bearing this in mind, as jmd says, the flower petals are drooping, this seems, to me, to be in preparation for the nine where the flowers die and become a baton. Therefore, there is a sense of harvesting about the card, and a natural process. We see the flower at it's height and soaking up energy and progressing through it's life, in a normal and natural pattern. The movement in this card is one of inevitability, but also the effort needed to keep going too. The effort and energy needed is not acute but is long standing and steady.

Reading this card alone could mean that staying power is needed and that we should enjoy each moment before moving on. Or perhaps that whatever the situation in the reading, that it should be allowed to progress at it's own pace.

Harmony....transitions...changing directions

Preparation for the nine...where we "clear the decks" to achieve the ten.

In the Hadar, the flower if not drooping. It has six yellow petals and I think of sixes as relating to transitions also...

Then six plus six equals twelve...a period of suspension in preparation for moving ahead (Le Pendu).

I sometimes see the eight also as a time when one might "run out of steam" and need to settle on the foundations represented by two 4's.

Some lagging of energy in preparation ...or a rest before moving ahead again.

terri

To me the key word for eight is progress. This comes I suppose from the infinity and the figure eight which is just an elaborate circuit.

They relate back to La Justice. Equilibrium, balance and cause and effect. Action which requires re-action and there is plenty of action in the batons. Lots of energy, but little fussi-ness. The flowers are simply cut off and lining up ready to make the baton of the nine.

I see this card as cutting to the chase with no messing about. Getting on with what is required in an organised fashion with a view to progressing to the next level. Being busy.

~

to Jodo:

eight is a paroxysm, a culminating point (he also refers to sexual orgasm).
whatever the current project, it is taking all our energy, we are carrying it to the fullest until it is born and shall live or die (nine -then of course he refers to the human pregnancy).
he relates the eights to both Justice and La Lune.

i would say if the card is read with another pair number, then the project will stagn and not develop much, or at least not flourish the way we expect.
on the opposite, read with an uneven numbered card may indicate a bigger outcome, more evident.
of course, this is what goes through my head as i'm writing without any kind of experience at all!

kissa

I see it as a weaved basket almost finished, where last minute ideas/things can still get in or out(flowers). the particularity of the flowers is that they are in a stagnant growth, not flourished, not dead. as if the idea or situation may be in a pending mode. the yellow whispers a connection to finances that may be the cause or result of the stagnation. depending on the cards beside it, this card will slow things down (or make you reconsider things) . it talks a lot about material possessions or issues that would put you to sweat a bit.

yara, the humble opinion-ator-ess on Marseilles :