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:
- The Past: Past events affecting the question.
- The Present: The current state or approaching influence.
- Hidden Influences: Things the reader may not be aware of (or barely be aware of).
- Obstacles: This is the challenge: obstacles may be avoided or may have to be dealt with.
- External Influences: Attitudes and thoughts regarding people around the reader.
- Suggestions: Recommended course of action.
- Outcome: The result of following the suggestions.
Your Horse Shoe Reading
Obstacle 10 of Pentacles |
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Hidden Influences 9 of Cups |
External Influences The Hanged Man |
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The Present Ace of Pentacles |
Suggestion 10 of Wands |
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The Past The Star |
The Outcome 6 of Wands |
The Past represents past events that are affecting the question.
The Star
A great, radiant star of eight rays, surrounded by seven lesser stars – also, of eight rays. The female figure in the foreground is entirely naked. Her left knee is on the land and her right foot upon the water. She pours Water of Life from two great ewers, irrigating sea and land. Behind her is rising ground and on the right a shrub or tree, whereon a bird alights. The figure expresses eternal youth and beauty. The star is l'etoile flamboyante, which appears in Masonic symbolism, but has been confused therein. That which the figure communicates to the living scene is the substance of the heavens and the elements. It has been said truly that the mottoes of this card are Waters of Life freely and Gifts of the Spirit.
The summary of several tawdry explanations says that it is a card of hope. On other planes it has been certified as immortality and interior light. For the majority of prepared minds, the figure will appear as the type of Truth unveiled, glorious in undying beauty, pouring on the waters of the soul some part and measure of her priceless possession. But she is in reality the Great Mother in the Kabalistic Sephira Binah, which is supernal Understanding, who communicates to the Sephiroth that are below in the measure that they can receive her influx.
Reversed Meaning:
Arrogance, haughtiness, impotence.
The Present represents the current state or immediately approaching influence.
Ace of Pentacles
A hand – issuing from a cloud – holds up a pentacle.
Divinatory Meaning:
Perfect contentment, felicity, ecstasy; also, speedy intelligence; gold.
Hidden Influences - Things that you may not be aware of, or barely be aware of.
9 of Cups
A goodly personage has feasted to his heart's content, and abundant refreshment of wine is on the arched counter behind him, seeming to indicate that the future is also assured. The picture offers the material side only, but there are other aspects.
Reversed Meaning:
Truth, loyalty, liberty; but the readings vary and include mistakes, imperfections, etc.
Obstacle - This is the challenge.
10 of Pentacles
A man and woman beneath an archway which gives entrance to a house and domain. They are accompanied by a child, who looks curiously at two dogs accosting an ancient personage seated in the foreground. The child's hand is on one of them.
Reversed Meaning:
Chance, fatality, loss, robbery, games of hazard; sometimes gift, dowry, pension.
External Influences - Attitudes about this situation from people around the querent.
The Hanged Man
The gallows from which he is suspended forms a Tau cross, while the figure – from the position of the legs – forms a fylfot cross. There is a nimbus about the head of the seeming martyr. It should be noted (1) that the tree of sacrifice is living wood, with leaves thereon; (2) that the face expresses deep entrancement, not suffering; (3) that the figure, as a whole, suggests life in suspension, but life and not death. It is a card of profound significance, but all the significance is veiled. One of his editors suggests that Eliphas Levi did not know the meaning, which is unquestionable nor did the editor himself. It has been called falsely a card of martyrdom, a card of prudence, a card of the Great Work, a card of duty; but we may exhaust all published interpretations and find only vanity. It expresses the relation, in one of its aspects, between the Divine and the Universe.
He who can understand that the story of his higher nature is imbedded in this symbolism will receive intimations concerning a great awakening that is possible, and will know that after the sacred Mystery of Death there is a glorious Mystery of Resurrection.
Divinatory Meaning:
Wisdom, circumspection, discernment, trials, sacrifice, intuition, divination, prophecy.
Suggestion - The recommended course of action.
10 of Wands
A man oppressed by the weight of the ten staves which he is carrying.
Reversed Meaning:
Contrarieties, difficulties, intrigues, and their analogies.
The Outcome - What will happen if the suggestion is followed.
6 of Wands
A laurelled horseman bears one staff adorned with a laurel crown; footmen with staves are at his side.
Divinatory Meaning:
The card has been so designed that it can cover several significations; on the surface, it is a victor triumphing, but it is also great news, such as might be carried in state by the King's courier; it is expectation crowned with its own desire, the crown of hope, and so forth.
