Three of Swords
Swords
How This Card Is Derived
Papus gives no separate description of this card. It is derived from his system: Swords is Vau (ו), the equilibrating principle, the link between the two, acting in Yetzirah, the formative world; the number 3 is Vau of the first series, the equilibrium binding the two. The meaning below is that combination read out — the equilibrating principle, the link between the two taken at its 3rd term — not a quotation from him.
Upright
The equilibrating term of the equilibrating suit — conflict doubled, and therefore conflict resolved in the only way this world can resolve it: by a wound. Three swords through one heart is a structure, not a mood. Papus's third term binds, and what binds two opposed forces is the damage done at the point where they meet. Sorrow that is accurate and impersonal.
Reversed
The wound tended, or the wound nursed — reversed splits sharply here and the surrounding cards decide which. It can also mark pain rerouted onto a safer target, which resolves nothing but stops the bleeding where it shows.
Correspondences
- Suit
- Swords — Vau (ו), Yetzirah, the formative world
- Suit principle
- the equilibrating principle, the link between the two
- Number
- 3 — Vau of the first series
- Numeric role
- the equilibrium binding the two
In a Spread
At the commencement, the matter begins in a hurt that has already happened. In opposition, an injury that is doing the arguing on someone's behalf. At equilibrium the situation is held together by something painful and functional. As the result: sorrow — and in Papus's scheme a resolution, which is why this card is so often right and so rarely welcome.