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 5 of Swords
Hidden Influences 2 of Cups		External Influences 9 of Pentacles
The Present 8 of Swords		Suggestion 8 of Pentacles
The Past The Emperor		The Outcome 10 of Swords

 

 

 

 

The Past represents past events that are affecting the question.

 

The Emperor

In this case King Sargon of Akkad. A great ruler in his own time rarely even makes the history books in ours.

 

 

 

 

The Present represents the current state or immediately approaching influence.

 

8 of Swords

Why in Pulp Fiction did he go with a Samurai Sword? He had a damn Chainsaw! Half the swords in pawn shops are cheap crap that'll break if you try to use it, chainsaws are dangerous, vicious weapons. It would have been way wiser and way cooler if he went with the Chainsaw. Way cooler.

That aside: It's about sacrifice. Nothing's free and nothing ventured means nothing gained.

 

 

 

 

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

 

2 of Cups

And two for my homies. Never forget past orthodoxies, past people or past events. Those who don't know their history aren't doomed to repeat it, they're doomed to fail history class and look like idiots. One feels no shame in repeating something they never saw in the first place, but stupidity is the greatest sin.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Obstacle - This is the challenge.

 

5 of Swords

An homage to Bosch and Bruegel, and a card symbolic of victory to the well-armed and pain to the unprepared or unwilling to defend.

 

 

 

 

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

 

9 of Pentacles

Da-Dling! Da-Dling! Da-Dling! Da-Dling! Da-Dling! Da-Dling! Da-Dling! Da-Dling! Da-Dling! Dzugdzugdzug.

Realistically, profit isn't hanging in the sky to be taken. If you take it, you're taking it from somebody. And you don't just get to smoosh them.

 

 

 

 

Suggestion - The recommended course of action.

 

8 of Pentacles

Things grow from other dead things. Don't overlook them for their dark origins, and don't dismiss the dead as a total erasure of what was.

 

 

 

 

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

 

10 of Swords

Classic iconography. Classic significance: Absolute destruction.