Tarot Talk
This month, we are going to discuss a less pleasant card: the Three of Swords. I will admit I groan with dismay each time I throw the Three of Swords in my daily spread. It is my least favorite card in the entire Tarot, above the Nine of Swords, or Death, or The Devil, or even The Tower on my personal dread list, and those are cards that can certainly shake your confidence. The Three of Swords is more personal to me, more connected to daily events, and its effects seem to always sneak up on me more quickly because of this.
The Three of Swords is a Minor Arcana card so it is most likely referring to a day-to-day issue, rather than a long-term or widely-sweeping one, but this does not take away from its potential to cause discomfort. How can you be excited about a card whose keywords are heartbreak, betrayal and isolation? Maybe we can’t get excited about this card, but we can learn to effectively respond to it. The best way to understand something, even something we fear (especially something we fear!), is to break it down to its most basic ingredients. So, let’s get started!
The suit of Swords, which corresponds with the element of Air, the Spades of playing cards, the direction of East and the color of yellow, seems to use “no pain, no gain” as its motto. Maybe the tendency for discomfort has to do with the fact that Swords usually tell of some focused intent to bring forth a manifestation of some kind, or they tell of a struggle and then an outcome. Swords cards are about purposeful actions and the thoughts, intentions or beliefs behind them; these actions are different from the Fiery Wands cards because they are deliberate, rather than as a response to random effects presented to us by the elements around us. Simply put, the effects of the Swords cards are sourced from within us; we are the main catalyst that creates the manifestation of a Swords card. Yep, in many ways the Swords cards represent our attempt to manifest our chosen reality, and they tell us that we might be causing the very challenges we are trying to prevent.
The element of Air corresponds with truth, clarity, and our capacity to analyze or apply logic. Thus, the Swords cards indicate our mental state, the beliefs we have, and actions we take in response to effects around us. A Sword has two edges, a perfect metaphor for this suit, which can represent attacking or defending, logic or aggression.
The suit of Swords is not all bad; after all the element of Air also represents the intelligence that clears away the fog of ignorance and allows us to understand what we are dealing with. Air is the medium of our voices, and it supports communications and sounds of all kinds; Air allows both expression (out from within us) and hearing (in from outside of us) to happen. Of course, words and communications are double-edges swords, too, and they can heal or hurt. The Swords cards also represent an opportunity to feel more empowered. That’s what happens when we successfully deal with a challenge!
The number 3 usually represents the creation of something new. We can see the manifestation of this throughout our physical world; when a male and a female of any species come together, the result is often the creation of new life. The number 3 can also represent optimism, self-expression and the polishing or honing of skills already in place. On the uncomfortable side of things, the number 3 can represent self-doubt, wastefulness, or vanity. Those seem happy enough, or at the very least (as far as those uncomfortable options), not terribly bad. So, how do we end up with the heartbreak, betrayal and isolation of the Three of Swords?
Within the Tarot, the Threes are seen as either creating something out of the potential of the Ace and the partnership of the Two of their suit, or they are seen as manifesting or making real the potential of the Ace and the concept of the Two. Briefly, we have the potential to be effective while using logic and analytical thinking (the Ace of Swords), and we have the building of the protective barriers that bring us quiet and solitude and non-action or non-manifestation (the Two of Swords). The Three of Swords builds on the potential of the logical mind and its analysis of where we are at the moment, and then adds the isolation and stifling of emotions and feelings that are sometimes necessary to an effective decision-making process, and creates an outcome. Let’s face it, logic and analysis without compassion and mercy may result in truth and clarity, but that truth and clarity will be skewed because it lacks outside opinions or objective advice and the acceptance and validation of our own emotions or the feelings of others. We need interaction and communication with others and with our own selves in order to chose the correct actions, and refusing to take those things into consideration is a recipe for . . . well, for heartbreak, betrayal and isolation.
The astrological correspondence for the Three of Swords offers us a bit more depth of understanding. This card corresponds with the planet Saturn when it is located in the constellation of Libra. Saturn represents discipline, responsibility, limitations and resistance; Libra represents the concept of “We are,” and partnerships, balance, cooperation. When we approach partnerships, balance, cooperation, and the perception of who “We Are” only through discipline and limitations, we could very well miss indications or hints that something is amiss, and set ourselves up for pain and isolation.
The traditional image of the Three of Swords, a red heart stabbed by three Swords, usually complete with dripping blood, dark clouds and heavy rain, is a perfect picture for the discomforts associated with this card. The Legacy of the Divine Three of Swords uses a powerful image: a woman’s face, tattooed with a heart on her cheek, and a tear flowing down that cheek from her eye and slicing that heart in two. Here, then, is a personal visualization to which we can all identify, an image that brings to life what could happen if we lose our awareness of needed partnerships and interactions, and focus instead only on logic and analysis.
But fear not, for there is one important factor to consider when dealing with the Three of Swords, or any of the Swords cards: perception. We are dealing with the mind here, and how it perceives, identifies, understands, learns about, and reacts to our world and our environment. The mind sees these things personally, and this means that the mind imposes an assumed intent onto any situation it is attempting to understand. Thus, the heartbreak, betrayal and isolation the Three of Swords represents within a reading could very well be created or amplified by our own mind and our own expectations.
In the end, the Three of Swords asks us to take another careful look at any situation in order to see if there is any hidden danger lurking undetected in the dark corners. Forewarned is forearmed, and that could be the silver lining to the dark cloud of the Three of Swords. And those tears? They are wonderful for cleansing away stresses and toxins, so that we can wash away the damage and create a clean, fresh, brand new start!