The Three of Swords, Strength, and the Page of Cups

What a rough start. The Three of Swords (by Sabina Espinet) is so iconic, it's hard not to base the whole reading around it. It is reversed, though. I know the Three is about heartbreak, and the reversal says this energy is blocked. That doesn’t mean that “I’m fine,” but that I am stuck until I experience (or stop ignoring) that heartbreak. If you go floating through life and don’t experience the lowest of the lows, how can you shake yourself out of that path? It is difficult to invoke deep change without a critical event or “hitting rock bottom.”

Strength (by Francesca Ruffoni Ruru) is also reversed. Fuck. Strength isn’t about martial might, of course, its whole vibe is using compassion to conquer—if you could even call it “conquering”. Again, it's reversed, so we are looking at a world in which the power of your compassion is blocked. Well, that seems related, doesn’t it? Think about how it relates to the Three. If you have turned off your ability to feel to save yourself from heartbreak, how can you be compassionate?

What’s left is the Page of Cups (from the Wyspell Starlight Blue Tarot). I love this card. The Page of Cups is the kind of person who knows how to have a good time, and this card represents it well. She is looking over the reversed Three and the reversed Strength and holding up her glass. Time to take a drink, give a toast, and get down to business with your feelings.

Here is a small toast of Scottish origin, which I first misheard from Return to Zork,

Here’s to Us

Those like us.

Damn Few

And they’re all dead.