Tarot Insights: Three of Swords

Everybody Hurts Sometimes

Most people don’t want to see the Three of Swords come up in a reading. It generally speaks of pain, misery and sorrow more obviously than any other card in the deck. On the other hand, there are times we need to see this card for our own good, so we can deal with and process those energies. Because, although it can come up as a potential future issue, I usually find the Three of Swords comes up because of some unresolved issue from the past.

No one goes through life untouched by this energy. Even in the happiest place on earth (allegedly) people die on occasion. What isn’t the same for everyone is how we deal with the emotions that come with a three of Swords experience. The healthiest thing to do is to feel them, let them impart whatever wisdom there is to be gained from such an experience, learn the lesson, then release them. So simple it can fit in a sentence. And yet so difficult it can take years, or even a lifetime, depending on how affected you are and your capacity for resiliency.

Deep emotional pain can be more than some people can bear, and as a result they will do what they can to bury those feelings in self-medication (drugs, alcohol, reckless behaviour, etc.). Alternatively, some people are more like Marge Simpson and can just “push the bad feelings down into your toes and crush them”. The problem in both cases is, instead of going away, those feelings lurk there and fester, dragging the person further down.

No matter how good you think you are at pushing away what you don’t want to feel, and even if you can do it most of the time, those feelings will still pop up at inopportune times in inconvenient ways. You will be having a jovial dinner with friends when suddenly your face goes dark and angry. You suddenly feel every drop of bitterness over that person who broke your heart, simply because there is asparagus on the table and asparagus was that person’s favourite vegetable. And now everyone is looking at you thinking “WTF?” and even if you could explain yourself you’ve already decided it sounds too mad to share.

So anyway, if you really want to start feeling something different you need to stop running and start listening to those feelings. They are trying to tell you something. That’s why they are there, and they will keep coming back until they believe you heard and understood their message. Then you will be able to release those feelings and the emotional baggage associated with them. That might take a little energy work—the longer you’ve held onto them the harder it can be to let go.

And if there is a lesson for you in this message from your emotions, I would recommend learning it and acting on it. Lessons not learned have a habit of recurring until they are learned—the universe seldom gives up. If you decide to opt out of the lesson, you might want to read this post again in preparation for reliving it.