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 6 of Cups
Hidden Influences 2 of Wands		External Influences King of Swords
The Present Queen of Pentacles		Suggestion The World
The Past 8 of Pentacles		The Outcome 3 of Wands

 

 

 

 

The Past represents past events that are affecting the question.

 

8 of Pentacles

An artist in stone at his work, which he exhibits in the form of trophies.

Reversed Meaning:

Voided ambition, vanity, cupidity, exaction, usury. It may also signify the possession of skill, in the sense of the ingenious mind turned to cunning and intrigue.

 

 

 

 

The Present represents the current state or immediately approaching influence.

 

Queen of Pentacles

The face suggests that of a dark woman, whose qualities might be summed up in the idea of greatness of soul; she has also the serious cast of intelligence; she contemplates her symbol and may see worlds therein.

Divinatory Meaning:

Opulence, generosity, magnificence, security, liberty.

 

 

 

 

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

 

2 of Wands

A tall man looks from a battlemented roof over sea and shore; he holds a globe in his right hand, while a staff in his left rests on the battlement; another is fixed in a ring. The Rose and Cross and Lily should be noticed on the left side.

Reversed Meaning:

Surprise, wonder, enchantment, emotion, trouble, fear.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Obstacle - This is the challenge.

 

6 of Cups

Children in an old garden, their cups filled with flowers.

Reversed Meaning:

The future, renewal, that which will come to pass presently.

 

 

 

 

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

 

King of Swords

He sits in judgment, holding the unsheathed sign of his suit. He recalls, of course, the conventional Symbol of justice in the Trumps Major, and he may represent this virtue, but he is rather the power of life and death, in virtue of his office.

Reversed Meaning:

Cruelty, perversity, barbarity, perfidy, evil intention.

 

 

 

 

Suggestion - The recommended course of action.

 

The World

As this final message of the Major Trumps is unchanged – and indeed unchangeable – in respect of its design, it has been partly described already regarding its deeper sense. It represents also the perfection and end of the Cosmos, the secret which is within it, the rapture of the universe when it understands itself in God. It is further the state of the soul in the consciousness of Divine Vision, reflected from the self-knowing spirit. But these meanings are without prejudice to that which I have said concerning it on the material side.

It has more than one message on the macrocosmic side and is, for example, the state of the restored world when the law of manifestation shall have been carried to the highest degree of natural perfection. But it is perhaps more especially a story of the past, referring to that day when all was declared to be good, when the morning stars sang together and all the Sons of God shouted for joy. One of the worst explanations concerning it is that the figure symbolises the Magus when he has reached the highest degree of initiation; another account says that it represents the absolute, which is ridiculous. The figure has been said to stand for Truth, which is, however, more properly allocated to the seventeenth card. Lastly, it has been called the Crown of the Magi.

Divinatory Meaning:

Assured success, recompense, voyage, route, emigration, flight, change of place.

 

 

 

 

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

 

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.