Horse Shoe Spread

 

 

Difficulty: Easy

The Horse Shoe is a classic tarot spread. It is more advanced than the three-card reading, yet simpler than most other spreads. It is a versatile method that can be used for most queries, though there are other spreads which would go into more depth. Like the simple Past, Present, and Future spread, it contains these cards in positions #1, #2, and #7, but also has four other tarot cards that help the reader understand how to deal with the future better. The cards are to be read as follows:

1. The Past: Past events affecting the question.
2. The Present: The current state or approaching influence.
3. Hidden Influences: Things the reader may not be aware of (or barely be aware of).
4. Obstacles: This is the challenge: obstacles may be avoided or may have to be dealt with.
5. External Influences: Attitudes and thoughts regarding people around the reader.
6. Suggestions: Recommended course of action.
7. Outcome: The result of following the suggestions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Your Horse Shoe Reading

	Obstacle 3 of Wands
Hidden Influences Knight of Cups		External Influences The Hermit
The Present 5 of Wands		Suggestion 7 of Cups
The Past Ace of Pentacles		The Outcome Queen of Wands

 

 

 

 

The Past represents past events that are affecting the question.

 

Ace of Pentacles

A hand – issuing from a cloud – holds up a pentacle.

Divinatory Meaning:

Perfect contentment, felicity, ecstasy; also, speedy intelligence; gold.

 

 

 

 

The Present represents the current state or immediately approaching influence.

 

5 of Wands

A posse of youths, who are brandishing staves, as if in sport or strife. It is mimic warfare.

Divinatory Meaning:

Imitation, as, for example, sham fight, but also the strenuous competition and struggle of the search after riches and fortune. In this sense it connects with the battle of life. Hence some attributions say that it is a card of gold, gain, opulence.

 

 

 

 

Hidden Influences - Things that you may not be aware of, or barely be aware of.

 

Knight of Cups

Graceful, but not warlike; riding quietly, wearing a winged helmet, referring to those higher graces of the imagination which sometimes characterise this card. He too is a dreamer, but the images of the side of sense haunt him in his vision.

Reversed Meaning:

Trickery, artifice, subtlety, swindling, duplicity, fraud.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Obstacle - This is the challenge.

 

3 of Wands

A calm, stately personage, with his back turned, looking from a cliff's edge at ships passing over the sea. Three staves are planted in the ground, and he leans slightly on one of them.

Reversed Meaning:

The end of troubles, suspension or cessation of adversity, toil and disappointment.

 

 

 

 

External Influences - Attitudes about this situation from people around the querent.

 

The Hermit

The variation from the conventional models in this card is only that the lamp is not enveloped partially in the mantle of its bearer, who blends the idea of the Ancient of Days with the Light of the World It is a star which shines in the lantern. I have said that this is a card of attainment, and to extend this conception the figure is seen holding up his beacon on an eminence. Therefore, the Hermit is not, as Court de Gebelin explained, a wise man in search of truth and justice; nor is he, as a later explanation proposes, an especial example of experience. His beacon intimates that – where I am, you also may be.

It is further a card which is understood quite incorrectly when it is connected with the idea of occult isolation, as the protection of personal magnetism against admixture. This is one of the frivolous renderings which we owe to Eliphas Levi. It has been adopted by the French Order of Martinism and some of us have heard a great deal of the Silent and Unknown Philosophy enveloped by his mantle from the knowledge of the profane. In true Martinism, the significance of the term Philosophe inconnu was of another order. It did not refer to the intended concealment of the Instituted Mysteries, much less of their substitutes, but – like the card itself – to the truth that the Divine Mysteries secure their own protection from those who are unprepared.

Divinatory Meaning:

Prudence, circumspection; also and especially treason, dissimulation, roguery, corruption.

 

 

 

 

Suggestion - The recommended course of action.

 

7 of Cups

Strange chalices of vision, but the images are more especially those of the fantastic spirit.

Reversed Meaning:

Desire, will, determination, project.

 

 

 

 

The Outcome - What will happen if the suggestion is followed.

 

Queen of Wands

The Wands throughout this suit are always in leaf, as it is a suit of life and animation. Emotionally and otherwise, the Queen's personality corresponds to that of the King, but is more magnetic.

Divinatory Meaning:

A dark woman, countrywoman, friendly, chaste, loving, honourable. If the card beside her signifies a man, she is well disposed towards him; if a woman, she is interested in the Querent. Also, love of money, or a certain success in business.