The door clangs shut.  Who holds the key
To win back your liberty

You are trapped. Maybe not physically, but in a particular situation. Maybe the card relates to a dead-end job that constricts your talents, or a relationship that isn't developing. The first thing the Prison card asks us to do is examine our lives, and see where it is that we're constricted.

The second instruction is to examine how we got here. What did we do to warrant this punishment? Is the punishment self-inflicted? Or have we got here accidentally, and are trapped only because we can't see a way out? Who or what can help us now? Is there anyone else stuck in the same position &mndash; maybe we can work together to get out?

Sometimes it is right that we are trapped, away from the light, because this kind of situation can inspire creativity or camaraderie. But it can inspire revenge also, and the card warns us against nursing ill will or grudges: these will destroy us more than the people that they are directed against.