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 10 of Pentacles
Hidden Influences Ace of Pentacles		External Influences Knight of Cups
The Present 5 of Swords		Suggestion 10 of Cups
The Past Page of Wands		The Outcome 2 of Cups

 

 

 

 

The Past represents past events that are affecting the question.

 

Page of Wands

In a scene similar to the former, a young man stands in the act of proclamation. He is unknown but faithful, and his tidings are strange.

Divinatory Meaning:

Dark young man, faithful, a lover, an envoy, a postman. Beside a man, he will bear favourable testimony concerning him. A dangerous rival, if followed by the Page of Cups. Has the chief qualities of his suit. He may signify family intelligence.

 

 

 

 

The Present represents the current state or immediately approaching influence.

 

5 of Swords

A disdainful man looks after two retreating and dejected figures. Their swords lie upon the ground. He carries two others on his left shoulder, and a third sword is in his right hand, point to earth. He is the master in possession of the field.

Divinatory Meaning:

Degradation, destruction, revocation, infamy, dishonour, loss, with the variants and analogues of these.

 

 

 

 

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

 

Ace of Pentacles

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

Divinatory Meaning:

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.

Divinatory Meaning:

Gain, riches; family matters, archives, extraction, the abode of a family.

 

 

 

 

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

 

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.

Divinatory Meaning:

Arrival, approach – sometimes that of a messenger; advances, proposition, demeanour, invitation, incitement.

 

 

 

 

Suggestion - The recommended course of action.

 

10 of Cups

Appearance of Cups in a rainbow; it is contemplated in wonder and ecstasy by a man and woman below, evidently husband and wife. His right arm is about her; his left is raised upward; she raises her right arm. The two children dancing near them have not observed the prodigy but are happy after their own manner. There is a home-scene beyond.

Reversed Meaning:

Repose of the false heart, indignation, violence.

 

 

 

 

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

 

2 of Cups

A youth and maiden are pledging one another, and above their cups rises the Caduceus of Hermes, between the great wings of which there appears a lion's head. It is a variant of a sign which is found in a few old examples of this card. Some curious emblematical meanings are attached to it, but they do not concern us in this place.

Divinatory Meaning:

Love, passion, friendship, affinity, union, concord, sympathy, the interrelation of the sexes, and – as a suggestion apart from all offices of divination – that desire which is not in Nature, but by which Nature is sanctified.