3 swords not a bad thing?

[BLFO]

For emotions, I am thinking that perhaps it is not about heartbreak as many people assume. How about it being the equivalent to a cupid's arrow? Something so sweet that it causes a sting in the heart? I remember a person discussing if 8 wands is the cupids arrow shooting and someone said no. However, i think the cupid's arrow is the 3 swords, because it shows an actual dagger stabbing the hearth.

As for feelings are concerned, 3 swords should feel like a bitter sweet feeling. I am thinking about Juliet's line with Romeo.

 

[star-lover]

you can't get hurt if you don't really love/open your heart so that's a positive way of looking at it

it still smarts though lol

i tend to view this card as bad news most of the time but it's not as terrible as it seems - in fact its an affirming card that the right thing is happening

 

[BLFO]

It takes a long time for me to find second meanings for cards, because once I learn a meaning, it sticks with me for years without me being able to open up and see a second interpretation. So...why is it an affirming card that the right thing is happening? Visually, I don't see anything positive about it in the Rider-waite or Gilded. Just a heart being stabbed. And I only associated with a pang feeling in the heart.

Is there something I am missing?

Edit:

I never thought about it as an opening of the heart, since visually the heart looks intact event though it is stabbed. But, I guess if you are stabbing a heart, you really are opening it. Duh, brain fart. I just never thought of it in a positive way. Only negative. I assumed that the opening of the heart was always 2 Cups by mutual feelings of affection. Or desiring it.

 

[star-lover]

i see it as necessary pain - its the first part of healing something which is not right - it's like a the worst is over, can't get more painful than this kind of thing

i also find it about sacrificing one's heart for the better - for yourself or for another or both


like to hear other's views

there have been many threads on this card with lots of meanings offered - if you do a search you should find them

i also agree about the bitter-sweet

 

[clarity]

How about it being the equivalent to a cupid's arrow? Something so sweet that it causes a sting in the heart? I remember a person discussing if 8 wands is the cupids arrow shooting and someone said no. However, i think the cupid's arrow is the 3 swords, because it shows an actual dagger stabbing the hearth.

As for feelings are concerned, 3 swords should feel like a bitter sweet feeling. I am thinking about Juliet's line with Romeo.

Its always been more pain than bittersweet love to me. Its not a lovely little arrow, but a dagger thats breaking, piercing the heart, causing pain. A Cupid's arrow would denote love or falling in love and I don't really associate that with this card. Being cupid struck would be more 8 of wands, 2 of cups or the lovers.

 

[6 Haunted Days]

I remember a person discussing if 8 wands is the cupids arrow shooting and someone said no.

Actually an old divination meaning for 8 of wands IS infatuation, so you weren't off at all on that one.

As far as 3 of swords I can see that as sometimes cutting to the heart of the matter and getting all the emotional gunk out (depends on surrounding cards). So no, I don't think it's always a horrible card. It can signal immense healing and cathartic release.

 

[EarthFaery]

I think bitter-sweet is a perfect description of this card.
Out of conflict, sorrow, and separation comes a feeling of relief knowing that a resolution is on the front, and emotional healing can finally begin, and things can only get better.
I havn't experienced this card relationship wise but I've been pulling but for the last year in regards to my health issues, I've been from dr to dr for the last "3" years trying to find out why I'm so sick all the time only to have been misdiagnosed over and over again. I went back to my dr and cried in his office, I was so emotionally overwhelmed and felt such frustration, sadness, anger, helpless, and so disappointed and at my lowest, this was the turning point to the whole situation, after a wide range of testing, my issues were finally discovered...relief!!!!!!!!Now I face the physical side of this card and am preparing for surgeries....It's all so bittersweet!!!! But I feel like after all of this pain emotionally (and physically) I can finally get back to my old self again...lol I hope!

 

[balenciaga]

Searching for the Positive

Being cupid struck would be more 8 of wands, 2 of cups or the lovers.

Yes, I was thinking about Cupid in the Lover's Card - I use the M. Scapini as my daily deck - I don't see cupid or anything cupid-like in the 3 of Swords. It could be the pain of realization, of truth in one's heart. Not positive initially, but a card that is part of the "silver lining" when thought about later.

 

[celeste]

It's not always about emotional pain either. I once got this card in a reading for someone where it turned out the card was about a heart condition. It is always good to be open to the realization that the cards can sometimes reflect literal or practical matters, and not always metaphorical.

 

[Grizabella]

I once saw someone here say they'd seen 3 of Swords as meaning a surgery on a woman's uterus and been right. Another person said they'd seen the 4 of Pentacles as meaning constipation and been correct.

When you assign a fixed meaning to the cards, you're severely limiting your readings and failing to see what the cards are really saying for your sitter. If you just "hang loose", so to speak, and let your intuition go into play, you'll find that you'll be given what each card really means in the spread much more easily.

What I've tended to do sometimes is immediately reach for the meaning I've learned without pausing for a few minutes to let my intuition work to give me whatever else might be there. Then when the learned meaning escapes me, I'll panic and get a block.

So what I'm saying is that I wouldn't give concrete meanings to any card. We're used to associating pain with the 3 of Swords, but it could mean some really surprising things if you just open yourself to hearing what your----let's call it "higher mind" -----says to you about it.