The Only Way Out is Through: An Analysis of the Three of Swords.

Hello, all!

I’m continuing my series on the Suit of Swords. Next up is the Three of Swords, which is famously a card that people hate to get in a reading. I’m not sure if, after you read my interpretation, you will like it any more than you already do, but I hope that you understand and appreciate its necessity a little bit more than you did before you opened this post.

The Three of Swords from Pagan Otherworlds Tarot (UUSI Designs).

First of all, I would say that the Three of Swords is largely an experiential card. It’s an “if you know, then you know” sort of card. By that, I mean that it carries themes of heartbreak, betrayal, and sadness so visceral that they are hard to explain or express. The best thing that you can do is sit with, just be with someone else who has experienced something similar, or to engage with art (in whatever medium) that resonates with your current feelings.

Notice that in the image of the Three of Swords that the three blades pierce the center of the heart, disappearing completely as they puncture it. My interpretation of this image is that when we are going through an incredibly difficult emotional situation, our ability to make sense of, create linear stories, or rationalize is insufficient to the moment.

The swords, representing our ability to think, literally vanish inside the experience, at least temporarily. You can only feel the hurt. And if you rationalize away the pain, you’re only going to prolong or defer it. It’s like that cliche saying, “The only way out is through”—sometimes, you have to be laid low by a heartbreaking situation. That doesn’t mean you’ll never get up again, it just means that your humanity demands that you process the pain. Therefore, the Three of Swords is not a purely negative card. Your ability to feel heartbreak proves that you have a heart, that you are alive, and that you are human.

The previous card, The Two of Swords, represents a person in a pose of indecision, blindfolded, purposely unaware of an unpleasant reality. Well, in the Three of Swords, the blindfold has been removed, and the seeker is exposed to all of the pain that they were trying to ignore or deny. I’m struck time and again by the simple, stark, straightforward image on the card of the heart stabbed three times. It’s arresting and kind of cartoonish at the same time. Everyone knows that it isn’t good, and no one wants it to happen to them. But sometimes, these things do.

It’s also a testament to our resilience that the heart itself stays intact, not falling apart after being pierced by the three swords, something that shouldn’t seem possible, but that’s what the card shows us. Throughout history, people have demonstrated their ability to survive the unspeakable. Are they changed by the experience, sometimes for the worse? Absolutely. The Three of Swords shows us that life presents us with heartbreak, with scars, and that sometimes they are inevitable. What we think and believe about these experiences can help us heal or intensify the pain.

Earlier, I mentioned that sometimes with the Three of Swords, engaging with or creating art is the only way we can articulate our pain. We can’t express that pain in a literal, concrete sequential way; it can only be expressed properly in the poetic, the figurative, or the abstract. As I was thinking of what to write here, I thought of several pieces of art in different mediums that helped illustrate this point. One is Guernica which Pablo Picasso painted in 1937, about the war, which he said “sunk Spain into an ocean of pain and death.” Another is the video for “This is America” by Childish Gambino (Donald Glover), a commentary on gun violence, capitalism, and what it means to be a Black man in the United States [Trigger warning if you click on the video: there are images of gun violence]. Both of these are masterpieces, expressing the pain of their creators, but definitely not in a literal way. They are both beautiful and disturbing at the same time in a way that goes beyond our ability to say exactly why. Both works of art give me some of that same feeling that I get when I draw the Three of Swords, a quick, shocked, intake of breath. A moment of sad recognition.

So, that’s it. That’s my interpretation. How does the Three of Swords show up for you? What interpretations have you come to over the course of reading the cards? Are you like me, where pulling this card brings up experiences that have left an indelible mark on you? How do you integrate those thoughts and feelings?

Thank you for reading,

Layla