by A.E. Waite [1911]
The essential Tarot reference by the designer of the best known Tarot deck.
Three swords piercing a heart; cloud and rain behind. Divinatory Meanings: Removal, absence, delay, division, rupture, dispersion, and all that the design signifies naturally, being too simple and obvious to call for specific enumeration. Reversed: Mental alienation, error, loss, distraction, disorder, confusion.
Source
61. Three of Swords.--A Nun, Separation, Removal, Rupture, Quarrel; R. Error, Confusion, Misrule, Disorder.
Three of Swords
TRADITION: Departure, absence, rupture, delay, division, removal, being-far-away. Also aversion, hatred, disgust, etc. Contrarieties, opposition, unsociable qualities, gruffness, separation, etc. Reversed: Mental worries, troubles and even alienation. Error, mistake, loss. A nun.
THEORY: The element of Earth on the Third house acts in the way of the mind and mental processes, and must appear as 'troubles,' etc., because it gives the feeling of the mind being burdened, which might easily go as far as oppression. If the burden becomes too heavy, either the body or the soul may suffer severely, and pain, affliction or mental aberration may ensue. This card must generally mean bad news too, the message which brings news of the affliction. It may be a corrective to a too easy and volatile imagination. It will in most cases denote some sickness, as a result of the pressure or oppressed feeling in the mind or in circumstances in general. It may be the result of worrying. The house of Gemini also suggests some suffering on account of distance, separateness, being far from one other. And the oppressed mind, which cannot have its
way, may easily denote the spiritual condition of a nun or some one who takes refuge within the precincts of a monastery. In this case, however, the motives are not of the more elevated or exalted order: there is spitefulness, vexation, bitterness on account of unrealised hopes, want of idealism. So this does not indicate the idealistic type of monasticism. The card typifies the worries of the lesser sort of mind, also small talk, evil thought, the wrestling of the inferior mind with matter and all that may be expected from it.
CONCLUSION: Oppression, worries, being burdened, baffled hopes, troubles, tendency to separateness, rupture and seclusion, pessimism. Removal, absence, delay. Small talk, bitter and evil thought, sickness; in bad cases alienation. Error of judgment, wrong opinion, hatred, aversion, etc. In general: affliction. Scheming, but not in a good sense.
The Three of Swords-Sorrow:In past blogs on the subject of Binah, you may remember that Binah is the Third Sephiroth calledUnderstanding,
She is also named the Sanctifying Intelligence and the Parent of Faith. Here is the implication that any religion of any sect, could not have a "church" without this underlying structure of Sanctifying Intelligence.
As Mary is the Church, in Catholic doctrine, so is Binah the Parent of Faith...not the faith itself, but its parental intelligence that is the foundation of organization, structure and sanctity. She is the Will to Form, and your body is the "church" of your spirit; a "church" you wouldn't have without the Creatrix-Binah.
You may ask, "What has this to do with sorrow?" To make this simple, she is the Crone in this card, and the Crone is the death of the you that you think you are. As the concept of Virgin, we have Binah as High Priestess, as concept of Mother we have Binah as Empress and here She is as the beginning of Crone which forms in Geburah.. Let me explain: many of us think that 'freedom of choice" is happiness, but we forget that in order to have "freedom of choice", we must have a beginning and an end. As Spirit, we just Are,there is no up, no down, no in and no out; We just Are. But as a Spirit who runs a material body, we have the freedom to choose up, down, in or out. and here freedom is really free-doom, for we also get to choose our body- death. Be it ignorant or intelligent choice it is still our Soul's choice. Freedom of choice also brings great sorrow and great joy, love and sadness etc. Again, we have bodies so that we may form the necessary "soft ware", that is a discriminating personality. Spirit doesn't discriminate-----it just is!As Master Jahaladine Rumi, the twelfth century Sufi master and poet said about sorrow,"Sorrow prepares you for joy. It violently sweeps everything out of your house, so new joy can find a space to enter. It shakes the yellow leaves from the bough of your heart, so that fresh green leaves can grow in their place. It pulls up the rotten roots, so that new roots hidden beneath have room to grow. Whatever sorrow shakes from your heart ,far better things will take their place."
This card is a Three, the number of the major arcana--key 3
The Empress and to Her the great Sorrow of the Mother is felt. For she has given birth to Beautiful Children who often think themselves into ugliness. This hurts a loving mother, Also the fact that those beautiful children must end because they won't transform themselves in daily life, but become burdened and sluggish bearing the crushing loads of false identity, is yet another addition to the burden of sorrow. Because of the need to transform we know that sorrow arrives with every loving attachment in this world of matter.
Many of us know that to love is to end in loss...but we will love after loss anyway. Love is our nature and loss, is the beginning of a new gain. This understanding, doesn't lessen sorrow, it just helps us move forward with tears running down our face. Thus there is strength gained in understanding sorrow, where as, fear of sorrow weakens us.
THE THREE OF SWORDS-SORROW: is also called the Lord of Sorrow, so once again we get confused by sexual connotations. But energy is male in expression and female in reception. The Planet attributed to the Three of Swords is Saturn in the sign of Libra. The Angels of the Decan are Hayayel and Hoquiam.
Here we have the influence of Binah in the Astral World of Yetzirah. The Power of Saturn is destructive and initiatory bringing a presence of pain and hardship. But as we may know, hardship and suffering are often where we learn life's greatest lessons. So the Dark Sterile Mother, is not evil, she is a Sanctifying Intelligence. In the Three of Swords, Saturn unbalances the Scales of Libra, in order that they may be rebalanced in an improved way. So the Crone is the perpetrator of "Tough Love". and for a Mother, having to use tough love to teach her beautiful children, brings a sorrow as well. This is implied as the Rose of Five Petals, Her heart-- if you will, is torn apart by the piercing of the three swords. This card suggests the Dark Sea of Binah, a Womb of chaos, where things are deconstructed to be reconstructed.
The Erotic Tarot card of Milo Manara, the 3 of Air, shows a sad-wind blown woman, trying to hold "herself" together (holding her clothing down in the wind) under the violent gusts of Air, implying a tumultuous mind, tormented by its own thoughts of loss. The "...yellow leaves shaken form the bough of her heart" blow by in the prevailing winds of change.
Manara assigns the meanings of coldness, wind, turbulence, and waiting to his 3 of Air. The Astrological meaning assigned to this card is Saturn in Libra, implying the need to focus and consolidate harmoniously.
When the Three of Swords-Sorrow or the 3 of Air is thrown during a reading:
- The querent is experiencing thoughts of sorrow.
- reoccurring thoughts of sorrowful past events.
- the sorrow of a triangular relationship that is out of balance.
- Disappointment and heartbreak.
- A type of recognition where one must give up one thing to gain another.
- Releasing; a gift of sorrow, allowing the querent to release and let out the pent up stress of feared emotions.
- Here difficulty precedes power.
- Also, for initiates, who travel to the abyss, this sorrow is soul deep, for it is of the Sorrow of the Creatrix, who has to destroy to rebuild, which will happen to the personality that succeeds in traversing the Abyss.
-Source
I felt the breath of the spring, and accompanying the fragrance of violets and lilies-of-the-valley I heard the tender singing of elves. Rivulets murmured, the treetops rustled, the grasses whispered, innumerable birds sang in choruses and bees hummed; everywhere I felt the breathing of joyful, living Nature.
The sun shone tenderly and softly and a little white cloud hung over the woods.
In the midst of a green meadow where primroses bloomed, I saw the Empress seated on a throne covered with ivy and lilacs. A green wreath adorned her golden hair and, above her head, shone twelve stars. Behind her rose two snowy wings and in her hands she held a sceptre. All around, beneath the sweet smile of the Empress, flowers and buds opened their dewy, green leaves. Her whole dress was covered with them as though each newly opened flower were reflected in it or had engraved itself thereon and thus become part of her garment.
The sign of Venus, the goddess of love, was chiselled on her marble throne.
p. 30
"Queen of life," I said, "why is it so bright and joyful all about you? Do you not know of the grey, weary autumn, of the cold, white winter? Do you not know of death and graveyards with black graves, damp and cold? How can you smile so joyfully on the opening flowers, when everything is destined to death, even that which has not yet been born?"
For answer the Empress looked on me still smiling and, under the influence of that smile, I suddenly felt a flower of some clear understanding open in my heart.
CARD III.
THE EMPRESS.
The sun shone tenderly and softly and a little white cloud hung over the woods.
In the midst of a green meadow where primroses bloomed, I saw the Empress seated on a throne covered with ivy and lilacs. A green wreath adorned her golden hair and, above her head, shone twelve stars. Behind her rose two snowy wings and in her hands she held a sceptre. All around, beneath the sweet smile of the Empress, flowers and buds opened their dewy, green leaves. Her whole dress was covered with them as though each newly opened flower were reflected in it or had engraved itself thereon and thus become part of her garment.
The sign of Venus, the goddess of love, was chiselled on her marble throne.
p. 30
"Queen of life," I said, "why is it so bright and joyful all about you? Do you not know of the grey, weary autumn, of the cold, white winter? Do you not know of death and graveyards with black graves, damp and cold? How can you smile so joyfully on the opening flowers, when everything is destined to death, even that which has not yet been born?"
For answer the Empress looked on me still smiling and, under the influence of that smile, I suddenly felt a flower of some clear understanding open in my heart.
