Three of Swords

Minor Arcana · Swords · number 3 · Tre di Spade

Three of Swords, plate by Pamela Colman Smith
Pamela Colman Smith, 1910

Upright

The Three of Swords is a heart pierced by three blades under the rain: the picture already says everything, and Waite adds little. Removal, absence, delay, division, rupture, dispersion. If these days your heart aches from a separation, a betrayal, a distance you did not choose, it is no accident, and there is no need to play it down. It is not a sentence: the pain of this card is clean, without deceit, and that is precisely why it passes. The practical advice: do not pretend all is well. Cry if you need to, talk to someone, and make no final decisions until the rain stops.

Source: Arthur Edward Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910) · read the original passage
«Removal, absence, delay, division, rupture, dispersion, and all that the design signifies naturally, being too simple and obvious to call for specific enumeration.»

Reversed

Reversed, the Three of Swords does not heal but grows confused: mental alienation, error, loss, distraction, disorder. The pain is no longer faced, and turns into a fog in which you get things wrong, forget, lose your way. If these days you notice you cannot concentrate at work, you lose objects, you make mistakes you usually do not make, it is no accident: there is a wound you have not looked at. Be careful with driving, accounts and signatures. It is not a sentence, it is a signal. The practical advice: stop everything that is not urgent and allow yourself to feel bad openly, perhaps with professional help.

Source: Arthur Edward Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910) · read the original passage
«Mental alienation, error, loss, distraction, disorder, confusion.»

Source

Arthur Edward Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910) Part III, § 2, The Lesser Arcana, Three of Swords https://archive.org/details/a.-e.-waite-the-pictorial-key-to-the-tarot