Universal Fantasy - 3 of Swords

I don't get it.

Okay, three swords, standing upright in a river of ?blood? At the back, in shadow, and abandoned house at the top of a little rise.

The river bends a lot for such a small stream. Are the zigzags meaningful? All the swords are different - are they left by different people, who approached the house unarmed? Is the blood theirs, since it runs down the hill from the direction of the house?

The LWB says, "When others lose faith in us, we are most vulnerable to attack from within ourselves." This makes absolutely no sense to me. I'd love it if a few of you out there who have this deck could share your thoughts with me about this card.

And others

\m/ Kat

A blocked passage

This is one of my favorite cards - my Third-Eye Chakra throbs when this one comes out.

The three swords are expensive - look at the detail on the hild and blades. These were not abandonded in the roadbed, they were placed there for a purpose.

The road/river vanishes about mid-way through the card. There is a structure with at least two (yoni-shaped) portals. The one wthat is most clearly visible has an oval inside a square, lenteled-doorway, inside the yoni-shaped portal. Was this intended to echo the three-ness of this card?

The colors change from warm in the foregrount to cool as we near the structure - another warning to stay away? Yet, the trees form an arch.

My rede on the LWB verse is that if our heart falters, we won't reach our goal. Which rules here - the heart set on a quest, or all the outward signs that say 'stop - go no further'? Self-doubt is our enemy in this card? The wards here may be to keep others out but not us, or we may be included in the 'do not tresspass' intent of the imagery.

PS: Welcome back, Thorhammer!

Hi all.

This is the deck I used exclusively for my One Deck Wonder exercise from mid-March through October of this year, and the more I used it the more it opened up for me. But there were still cards that would stump me, and this was one of them.

In the beginning, when this card would pop up, my first instinct was to label it "heartache" from the standard RWS image. But that was the reason I was using this deck in my ODW, to break myself of that habit and try to read more intuitively.

Anyway, this card would pop up every now and then, and "heartache" never seemed to fit within the context of the reading, and it would stump me. So, FINALLY, I started looking at the image. The only thing that might even make me wonder if the "heartache" keyword would even fit is if you thought that little stream was blood (Which is questionable. Could be mud, you know? ) And then during one reading, I looked at the image, remembering that swords represented thoughts, and noticed that these swords were stuck in the ground. And that's when the phrase "Mental Blockage" hit me. And it fit perfectly. So, I entered it in my little keyword journal.

I do find with this deck that the more you use it, the more it speaks. And each time it may say something differently. The best thing to do is to use it often and see how the different cards come up.

Rede Seeker said:

My rede on the LWB verse is that if our heart falters, we won't reach our goal. Which rules here - the heart set on a quest, or all the outward signs that say 'stop - go no further'? Self-doubt is our enemy in this card? The wards here may be to keep others out but not us, or we may be included in the 'do not tresspass' intent of the imagery.

PS: Welcome back, Thorhammer!

Click to expand...

You make a very good point, RS. And you've started on my pet theme of the quest! Another card to add to the growing list of questish cards in this deck. But I do like the self-doubt thing. Yes, as it comes after the conflict of the higher numbers and between the self-seeking in the 4 and the stalemate of the 2. And thanks for the welcome back !

EarthAngel2911 said:

And then during one reading, I looked at the image, remembering that swords represented thoughts, and noticed that these swords were stuck in the ground. And that's when the phrase "Mental Blockage" hit me. And it fit perfectly. So, I entered it in my little keyword journal.

Click to expand...

Wow! Yes! This even brings out Rede Seeker's meaning even more, and links it with the "heart" thing. The self-doubt causes a mental blockage, as we don't trust what our mind is telling us, and this causes anguish and emotional pain.

I truly think I've never got this card (from this deck, that is) in a reading, which is why I have struggled with it so much. Thanks, guys.

\m/ Kat

This card makes me think that wherever this place is, something really bad happened there. It makes me think of the aftermath of a terrible event, and the pain, misery, and heartache that goes with it. The card is creepy to me, and it insinuates lost of nasty things. (Although I like the mental blockage idea too.)

Studying this card, I feel immediately drawn to the swords and hardly notice anything else.......here is my take:

The sword on the left appears to be gold (gold represents a masuline property magically) and on the right of the path is a silver sword (silver representing the feminine magical property).....so in a nutshell we have a traditional male/female (masculine/feminine pairing)......the sword in the middle of the path is neither metal and is blocking the way to home/family and doesn't seem to belong there (notice the guilt/handle is noticeably different from the other two!)......so I see this as a disruption to the home and the relationship of the swords to each other.

For me this image is the image of a field after a war..

I always took it as a pathway stained with blood, which would indicate pain...

The swords are blocking the path, preventing the way to a (presumeably) safer place... Either forwards... or back, depending on which side you're on. Kinda like stuck in the mud... the 'mental block' spoken of above, though perhaps self induced, since likely whomever the viewer of these swords is could pull them out of the mud or go about them, but hasn't. So they are causing their own pain, all alone.

Or something like that.

I think the swords are gold, silver, and bronze.

I thought the house was a church because of the pointed arches.

For me, all I notice are the swords and red usually.

I feel like yes, something bad happened here, and there were three parts. They stuck their swords in the ground as a kind of oath, perhaps to keep whatever happened that stained the stream red to themselves. Something unspeakable occurred?

From the looks of where the house is and the rise in the earth, I feel like where the stream and swords are is hidden, someone where no one would notice, like if we were walking to the house, we would completely miss it. Hidden, tiny, and deep come to mind. When "heartbreak or betrayal" occur, you try to hide it in the corner of your heart or mind, (perhaps embarrassed by what happened?) and the betrayal cuts deep.

Betrayal comes to mind with this card before heartbreak.

Following the idea of the swords blocking a path, I think of it this way: When your heart has been broken or you have been betrayed, you are not likely to forget that, and say after you've healed from it, and find yourself headed down that path again, you will remember what happened before... to me I feel the swords signify a reminder and a blockage. "Remember what happened before? Are you sure you want to do this again?"