Advice, negative card

[Tigga]

Hello

I do a daily spread everyday, 4 cards, the last one is advice on the situation, quite often I draw negative cards like for example, the Devil or 3 of swords, it puzzles me, should I see the Devil as an encouragement to free myself or to concentrate more on material affairs? for the 3 of Swords does it mean aknowledge your pain or locate those swords and remove?

Could you please tell me how you would read them?
Thanks

 

[Moonbow]

Hi Tigga

It's important to understand that all the cards have a vast array of meanings, positive, negative and anywhere in between. The meanings will depend on the cards surroungding them and on the issue at hand. Both of your meanings for those cards are correct and its for you to decide which is relevant to the rest of the reading. It also depends on the deck you use, for example the Marseilles Three of Swords looks far more positive than it does in the WCS deck and some would even suggest a sexual meaning for this card (in the right context), that doesn't mean that it can never have a negative interpretation within a reading though:

http://tarot.com/tarot/decks/index.php?deckID=65&cardID=52

 

[Tigga]

Thanks Moonbow I did not know this nifty site.

 

[balenciaga]

I tend to view the Devil as a warning against what one might feel is an obligation, like, "Ugh, I MUST do this thing I do not want to do" - out of guilt or a power struggle, etc. Not from good emotions or a balanced place.
The 3 sw, as recently discussed on the forum, can mean a hurtful truth, some painful sense of betrayal or disloyalty that one becomes aware of.

 

[SunChariot]

Hello

I do a daily spread everyday, 4 cards, the last one is advice on the situation, quite often I draw negative cards like for example, the Devil or 3 of swords, it puzzles me, should I see the Devil as an encouragement to free myself or to concentrate more on material affairs? for the 3 of Swords does it mean aknowledge your pain or locate those swords and remove?

Could you please tell me how you would read them?
Thanks

First I do not believe there are any negative cards in the deck, all are there to help us.

I do not read the way others do so I cannot tell you what you shuold see in the 3 of Swords, nor would I ever tell you what you shuold see at all. No one can tell you what you should or should not see. That has to come from inside you and from your intuition. BUT here are some ideas.

Let's say the Devil is about tempation, about what tempts you, which is its more general meaning for me personally. The advice could be that you should stop overthinking things and just follow your innermost desires and what you heart wants to do. That could be your advice.

As for the 3 of Swords again, I do not read like anyone else and have developed my own style over time. But the start for me is that I take the basic meaning of the suit and refer the number back to the Major Arcana. SO the 3 of Swords for me, is related to thought, and to The Empress. So in my way of thinking, and I know it is unique to me, the 3 of Swords' advice might start off being about the importance of thinking nurturing and caring thoughts about life and about the people you meet. Saying that sending those caring thoughts out into the universe produces more experiences in your life where others show caring for you...

I start with those basic meanings, then flesh it out by what the card image says to me at any particular time...

As for what you SHOULD see in the cards, no one can tell you that. There is no "should" to it. In fact whatever you see is just what you should see. Who we should be as readers is ourselves, and no one else can tell you how to be you and how you shuold perceive your life and the tools you use to percieve it. And of course the way you see things evolves the more you read also.

Babs

 

[Thirteen]

Could you please tell me how you would read them?

Obviously, it depends on the spread, situation and question...but you might read them as what *not* to do as much as what to do. Advice goes both ways after all. You can as easily advise someone not to do something they're inclined to do as advise them to do it.

That said, 3/Swords might well be advise to tell the truth and get something out into the open however much pain it might initially cause someone--like a friend or lover.

 

[rwcarter]

I do a daily spread everyday, 4 cards, the last one is advice on the situation, quite often I draw negative cards (snip)

Could you please tell me how you would read them?

Without speaking to specific cards, an advice position should be interpreted as exactly that - advice. It's all based on the context of the other three cards, but a "negative" card in the advice position might be advising:

• that if the first 3 cards don't play out as suggested, then the "negative" card will be the result.
• that the end result of the first 3 cards will be the "negative" card and that you need to experience whatever that "negative" card is. (Remember that growth can come from adversity.)
• that you need to go "there" (whatever's depicted in the "negative" card) in order to ensure the first 3 cards happen or to ensure that they don't happen.
• that the "negative" card actually represents a "positive" outcome and that you need to experience that outcome in order to understand how it's a "positive" reflection of the "negative" card.

I'm sure that are other things that a "negative" card could represent as advice, but that should be enough to get you started.

HTH,
Rodney

 

[aware7]

When I started reading cards I used to get worried

By cards such as The Devil and the 3 of Swords. Now I realise the cards were not necessarily referring to events or even objective realities of any kind.

These negative cards can be deeply subjective - showing what is thought consciously or unconsciously by me and you, people around us or other manifestations of actual or possible energies.

The Devil can refer to uncomfortable feelings - not necessarily evil, or tempting in any form. It can be discomfort with a situation where we feel we have no power or control. It can mean we don't love ourselves enough to realise that our 'dark side' (faults, obsessions, aspects that we need to lighten) is not a terrible be all and end all.

The Devil has taught me this year that some negative situations are not as bad as I think. I have been trapped sometimes in negative, fearful thoughts and have worried too much about some things.

Likewise I think the 3 of Swords can represent that there is a sense of hurt or removal or absence rather than the reality. It can also mean that we are not thinking in the best way - it is negative perception rather than negative reality. If we continue like this, we make the reality negative by our feelings of hurt or distrust or whatever.

 

[balenciaga]

Good observations, Aware7. Good feel for the Devil/3 sw and internal negativity.
I had another thought too - if you put them together, Devil/3sw can be "I feel I must, I am obligated, to tell them a painful truth which I know will hurt" or "I am obsessing over this painful experience, and I cannot stop myself from this self-torture", as if one plays it over and over in one's head, suffering over it. Could be over a betrayal, a lie, some deep emotional hurt. And the devil ties you to it, "forces" you to torture yourself over it.