Let’s face it, you’re not likely to giggle or smile when the 3 of Swords shows up in a reading or as your card of the day. But is it all bad? Let’s start by taking a look at some of the common negative and positive meanings of this card. Let’s not forget that all cards contain the full spectrum of light and dark.
Negative Tarot Card Meanings for the 3 of Swords
- Heartbreak and Sorrow: The 3 of Swords often represents deep emotional pain, heartbreak, and sorrow. It can signify a loss or betrayal in relationships, causing immense anguish.
- Grief and Suffering: This card can indicate intense feelings of grief and suffering. It represents the need to confront and process emotional pain, even if it feels challenging and overwhelming.
- Separation and Breakup: The 3 of Swords can symbolise a forced separation or a painful breakup. Alternatively, it suggests that there may be difficulties and obstacles in maintaining the connection with someone you care about.
- Avoiding Emotional Healing: In some cases, this card signifies a tendency to avoid confronting emotional wounds. It warns against spiritual bypassing and encourages facing and healing the pain to move forward.
Positive Tarot Card Meanings for the 3 of Swords
- Spiritual Growth and Resilience: The 3 of Swords, despite its challenging nature, is a card of spiritual growth and resilience. It represents the opportunity to learn valuable lessons from pain and adversity, leading to personal development and inner strength.
- Emotional Release and Healing: This card can indicate the need for emotional release and healing. It encourages us to acknowledge and process our feelings, allowing for catharsis and eventual transformation.
- Compassion and Self-Care: When the 3 of Swords appears, it can remind us to practice self-compassion and extend empathy towards others.
Remember that Tarot interpretations may vary, and it’s essential to consider the context of the reading and trust your intuition when interpreting the cards.
Feeling into the Energy of the 3 of Swords
When you face the 3 of Swords with equanimity for your daily draw or as part of a reading, you have come a long way on your spiritual journey.
Accepting that loss, sorrow, pain and grief are not only part of our journey on earth but that they provide valuable lessons, makes us able to carry out our mission as Lightworkers with greater strength and dignity. However, that said, we should always seek to alleviate suffering, our own as well as that of others. In fact, showing compassion toward self and others could very much be part of the lesson we are meant to learn when the 3 of Swords shows up.
“Understanding is the first step to acceptance, and only with acceptance can there be recovery.”
~ J.K. Rowling
Wincing at the 3 of Swords could be a sign that you are engaging in spiritual bypass and trying to avoid lessons that could potentially cause pain. Pay attention to your own reactions. They are as much a part of the reading as the symbolism in the cards.
Confront the Pain
In fact, part of what the 3 of Swords is here to teach us is to frequently check in with our hearts and make sure we are connected. Too many of us live inside our heads. It’s easier because there is often less pain in there.
The 3 of Swords makes us set aside wishful thinking and confront our heartache. And that’s a good thing. Allowing pain, regret and despair to fester causes much more harm long-term, both emotionally and physically.
Heart and Health
Health-wise, the obvious association for the traditional 3 of Swords image is any kind of heart problem. Science has lately proven what many already knew, and that it is possible to die from a ‘broken heart’ after the loss of a loved one.
“A glad heart promotes health, but the bones of a sorrowful man dry up.”
~ Proverbs 17
Saturn in Libra could also indicate issues with blockages in the urogenital system and kidneys. Kidneys are associated with fear and fear often goes hand in hand with loss and sorrow.
Affirmation: “I seek to understand emotional pain so that I can accept life for what it is.”
3 of Swords Prayer
Dear Mother-Father God, thank you for helping me accept pain as an integral part of life. I ask for the grace to understand the lessons pain brings, as well as to ease the suffering of my fellow Earthlings. Amen and so it is!
Correspondences
Zodiac Sign: Libra
Planet: Saturn
Archangel: Raphael, ruler of the Element of Air
Gemstone: Smokey quartz
Essential oils: Marjoram, oregano
The 3 of Swords in Love and Relationships
“Uh-oh”. That’s usually the reaction I get when I see this card in a relationship reading. It’s never fun to be the messenger of such news. The very best possible interpretation of this sorrowful card is a forced temporary separation.
But usually, it just means rejection, separation, loss and utter hopelessness. You don’t just feel that you are being unfairly treated – you are being unfairly treated. You have to find a way of changing the balance in your favour. Or you have to when you have stopped crying.
You can’t affect the other person or their decisions but you can heal your own heart and make sure that things are different the next time. The truth hurts sometimes. You usually come away from a 3 of Swords lesson realising that you have some work to do on yourself in order to manifest lasting love. But sometimes it truly is about learning what types of people to avoid.
Single and Looking
For recently single people, this card usually indicates that now is not a good time to start dating again. Closure and healing are needed first.
Intimacy
There is no intimacy indicated when this card shows up. Instead, count on spending lots of time on your own. Strive to make the most of your alone time by doing some serious (Saturn) reflection about what your core relationship values (Libra) are in relationships and how to ensure that you embody them.
Take me to the Angelic Tarot Card Meanings Index