The figure on the card is tied and blindfolded, but it seems that it is possible for her to move, her legs are unrestrained. Her captivity in this situation is surely at least for one part her decision. It seems that she doesn't move because she is afraid she will cut herself on the swords. This is a pat position, if she doesn't move she is stuck in a place and if she moves she will cut herself; in this no-win situation she is delaying her decision. This is a tipical example where element of air goes out of control and force the mind of a man to run in circles like dog running for its tail. She will have to find the trick to use the swords to her advantage and unleash herself from the bonds of doubt and fear. The lesson in this card is to show that no matter how situation seems hard and hopeless there is always a way out if we look around us. We must remain calm and act because hesitation, anger or panic will make a situation just worse.

Positive: patience.

Negative: powerless, trapped, depression due to restrictions, past that comes to hunt you, censure, crisis.

  A woman, bound and hoodwinked, with the swords of the card about her. Yet it is rather a card of temporary durance than of irretrievable bondage. Divinatory Meanings: Bad news, violent chagrin, crisis, censure, power in trammels, conflict, calumny; also sickness. Reversed: Disquiet, difficulty, opposition, accident, treachery; what is unforeseen; fatality.

— The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, by A.E. Waite