Universal Waite: 3 of Swords

Universal Waite, US Games 1990

What is the deal with the 3 of Swords? It's a curious card, no matter how you look at it, and not what you'd expect in the swords suit. Nearly every RWS deck uses the image of a valentine heart pierced by three swords, with some sort of rain or dripping around it. And of course it's traditionally seen as indicating heartbreak. Well, that doesn't seem quite right to me, somehow. I associate that sort of abject 'heartbreak' with the cups suit, the suit of emotion; I think a card meaning heartbreak would fit in better there, though none spring to mind at the moment. The swords I associate with thinking. So while these swords pierce the heart in the image, it is a false piercing of the heart. It's a false heart (being a valentine, after all). And it's even a false piercing, there being no blood in evidence. So this card doesn't read to me to be 'heartbreak' so much as 'making yourself miserable by what you're thinking about a situation.' You THINK you're heartbroken. But your heart is neither broken nor pierced, in reality. It's something you are doing to yourself. Or prolonging, or intensifying, in yourself. You keep stabbing YOURSELF in the heart.  You can stop. And just like the pain wouldn't go away instantly if you stopped poking yourself in the finger with a pin, the pain in your 'heart' won't stop instantly when you realise you're doing it to yourself. But it will stop, eventually. You have to stop stabbing yourself first, though. And stop believing that you're the victim of someone or something else. You're in control of how long you let this 'stabbing' continue.

Today's draw: The Empress

Today's card is The Empress from the Universal Waite tarot deck. I'm generally a bit perplexed by  majors in a daily draw, because they just seem too big and far-reaching for the events of a single day. (To be fair, I'm also generally perplexed by the 'daily draw' itself, and seldom try to read for myself using this technique.) It doesn't help that I rarely feel much like the Empress in myself, personally. With all her juicy pomegranates and waving matured grain, she represents aspects of the feminine that I don't readily identify with. I'm certainly no earth mother, definitely not interested in getting pregnant! On the other hand, I am interested today in avoiding the sort of squabbles that went on yesterday, so there is the sense of seeking harmony. And my hope is to get a lot of tasks done today...although I would have expected something like 8 of Coins for general productivity, whereas the Empress suggests producing something of an altogether more creative nature, and that seems unlikely to happen today!

Universal Waite: I shall not be moved

Yesterday I decided to get out my Universal Waite and as usual, I was surprised and delighted at how very good the deck is. Whenever I look at it, I realise that a good copy of the RWS is all you really need. Or at least all I really need. If I were down to just one deck, it would have to be Universal Waite.


Today I'm back to work after a week off, and also starting my a new timetable. It seems like a back-to-basics kind of day, so I'm using Universal Waite. Today's draw: 5 of Wands reversed. Now I don't usually shuffle for reversals, but last night, I accidentally knocked the deck off the arm of the sofa, and when I picked the cards up, I was aware that they weren't all upright, but didn't fix it. So today, I've drawn a reversed card. (I haven't posted it reversed as I can't bear to look at an image upside down! If I ever were to read reversals, I'd turn the card upright and mark it with a little stone or something).

'Balancing the Moment' with Cosmic Tarot

I first used this new-deck technique with Gaian Tarot, and as I just received my new Cosmic Tarot yesterday, it seemed like a good thing to try again! (I prefer this technique to 'new deck' interviews, as I never really felt a new deck was 'telling' me anything when I tried to talk to it about itself. I always found that technique a bit awkward).  

Step One. Separate the deck. Look through the deck and create two piles: Cards I like, Cards I dislike. 
Step Two. Reduce the piles. Study each pile carefully, and select 3-6 cards you like best of all, and 3-6 cards you most dislike. 
Step Three. Find the balance. Choose the card you like the most. Read it for its negative aspects and associations. Reflect upon how that applies in your life right now. Then choose the card you most dislike. Read it for its positive aspects and assocations. Reflect upon how that applies to your life right now.

Step One. 
On first sorting, there are only 15 cards in the 'Don't Like' pile. So I must really like this deck!  The cards I like either have an instantly obvious meaning to me, OR I just really like the art work, or both. The cards I dislike disturb or confuse me. (Example: Ten of Swords shows a bald male with glowing eyes, a beam of light emitting from his open mouth, being stabbed from all directions by little swords. Looks like a nightmare. I don't like nighmarish imagery.)

Steps Two & Three
Cards I like:

Cosmic Tarot US Games 1988

I find these cards very beautiful, particularly the High Priestess. She is my favourite card in this deck so far, and possibly my favourite High Priestess of all my decks. She seems to beckon me to join her in those deep waters, which are really my deep waters...She's gorgeous. The 9 of Cups is a lovely image, the colours are wonderfully warm, and the light and shadow playing the faces of the couple are doing good things to them. She is beautiful. There's something that feels sort of 'Deco' to me about the image. I find it really attractive. Finally, that pink flamingo is so eyecatching in The Star, and the diamond alice band she's wearing echoes the points of light all over the card. Wonderful image. 

What is the shadow meaning of my favourite card?  Well, the High Priestess reversed could be a lot like the Queen of Swords on a very bad day. Withdrawn, suffering from mood swings. If you talk to her you never know if she'll (curtly) answer you or just flat out snap your head off. She probably won't share anything that's not intended to cut. She uses her insight to sting and wound rather than to help. 

Cards I don't like:

Cosmic Tarot US Games 1988

I think the card I dislike most in the deck is Ten of Swords, but to be fair, I quite dislike all of these cards. That Devil card is just awful, I hate his face and nose ring, he just looks stupid. And the Fool is quite sinister looking, don't like his face, either. 

Ten of Swords reversed; it's not a card for which I've given much thought to shadow meaning. But if the 10 of Swords upright is genuine pain and anguish, maybe the 10 of Swords reversed is being a drama queen or an emotional hypochondriac. 

Huh! So is this a deck that will help me see when I need to get over myself?  Looks like it. :) And who doesn't need that message every now and then!

Celtic Tarot: King of Swords

The King of Swords from the Celtic Tarot (Courtney Davis, Aquarian 1990) is probably my favourite depiction of this court character. He is unlike any court card in the deck, and the best King of Swords I've seen in any deck so far. Obviously the first thing that strikes is the penetrating gaze of his huge blue eyes. They beam right out of the card straight into you. There is no doubt at all that he is looking right at you, that he sees you, that he understands what you are about, and that he is already at least three steps ahead of you. 


His chin is down slightly toward his chest, eyes raised. It is a steady gaze, with the slightest hint of a squint from beneath the eyes. He's studying you. Yet his brow is smooth and eyebrows relaxed. He is not afraid of you, and even curious about what behaviour you may display next. His hair,with its straight parting, accompanied by the beard, raises the inevitable comparison to the Shroud of Turin/Jesus image. There is a solemnity, a dignity, a purity and an authority associated with this image that is inescapable here. The purple mantle denotes his regal status and his authority. He holds his sword easily and familiarly. It is like an extension of himself; he is one with it, as he is one with his own mind and his own being. 


The King of Swords is a passionate man, but he is a man in control of himself. He believes: