Tarot · Swords
Three of Swords
- heartache
- sorrow
- a hard truth
The picture
A red heart is pierced by three swords, with grey clouds behind it from which rain is falling.
The meaning
The Three of Swords is one of the few cards without people, only a heart in the rain. The tradition reads it as heartache, disappointment and a painful insight. It stands for feelings that hurt and that you still need not push away. Rain stops, and it washes as well.
Reversed
Reversed, it is read as sorrow slowly healing, or pain that is being pushed aside.
In love
In love it is read as disappointment or hurt that ought to be talked about.
At work
At work it stands for criticism that stings, or parting from a project.
As your card of the day
Something is allowed to be sad today. You do not have to explain it away at once.
The Three of Swords stands for an uncomfortable truth. Once spoken, it is often easier to carry.
Swords belong to air. Readers see in them thought, decisions and plain words, the uncomfortable ones included.
Picture: Pamela Colman Smith, Rider-Waite-Smith tarot, 1909, public domain (Wikimedia Commons).