Sherlock Holmes Card of the Day: 8 of Evidence

The Sherlock Holmes Card of the Day is:

EIGHT OF EVIDENCE

(8 of Wands)

In The Sherlock Holmes Tarot by John Matthews and Wil Kinghan (Sterling Ethos), the suit of Evidence (represented by a shoe print) is comparable to the suit of Wands. The quotation chosen to represent the entire suit of Evidence is from The Copper Beeches: “Data! Data! Data! I can make no bricks without clay!”

The Holmesian Wisdom for the 8 of Evidence is: “Make a long arm, Watson, and see what V has to say.” This quote is from “The Sussex Vampire.” Holmes is asking Watson to reach up and take down the “V” volume of a reference book. The first part of the quote reads: “But what do we know about vampires? Does it come within our purview either? Anything is better than stagnation, but really we seem to have been switched on to a Grimms’ fairy tale. Make a long arm, Watson, and see what V has to say.”

The image on the 8 of Evidence shows a train steaming towards its destination with Sherlock Holmes aboard. As the deck creators tell us: “Holmes and Watson lived in a time when the rail network spanning Britain was second to none. . . The underlying meaning of this card has to do with swiftness, expediency and communication.”

In the Sherlock Holmes movies, I always love the scenes aboard the train, with Holmes and/or Watson sitting in their private car as they rumble along the tracks to the sound of the piercing train whistle.

Keys for this card, upright, are: “swiftness, expediency, hasty perpetration of intuitions, prophetic insight, speedy progress, communication.” Reversed meanings: “quarrels, disputation, setbacks, stoppages, regrets, lack of scruples.”

The book that accompanies this deck also provides interpretations for each card under the headings “The Game” and “The Fog.” The former elaborates on the upright keys, while the latter expands on reversed meanings. An example from “The Game” for the 8 of Evidence: “The freedom to move forward without hindrance. Things moving fast – sometimes too fast. . . The swiftest means of communication.” Examples from “The Fog”: “Delays hamper you. . . Lack of control makes quarrels flare. . . Stagnation follows, upon dealing with too many issues at once.”