Heartbreak of Swords

Element: Air

Upright

·heartbreak
·betrayal
·grief
·painful truth

Reversed

·healing
·forgiveness
·recovery
·release of grief

Upright

A heart hangs above the shelves, run through by three blades, and beyond the dark glass the rain comes down without stopping. The Three of the suit of swords is grief said plainly, and there is nothing here to soften. Heartbreak, the trust broken, the loss that goes all the way through. The card will not tell you the pain is wrong, it only sits with you in it. Sometimes the work is to let the rain fall, to feel the blade right where it is, and to trust the heart is larger than the cut.

Reversed

Reversed, the blades draw out slowly and the rain begins to thin against the glass. An old grief starts to close, forgiveness comes into reach, you stop walking back to the wound. Or the wound has stayed so long you have begun to mistake it for the heart itself. The card gives you leave to heal.

In the imagery

A red heart, painted like dried rose, hangs pierced by three iron blades in the cold space above the apothecary table while rain streaks the window behind. No candle warms this one, the gold light pulls back to the edges. The plain wound and the steady rain refuse to dress the grief up, they only witness it and wait it out.

Draw a one-card reading →Read this with Dylan

Others in the swords