Three of Swords
The three of swords in the tarot's Minor Arcana: three swords piercing a heart, with cloud and rain behind. A. E. Waite read it as removal, absence, delay and division.
Meaning
Waite's description of the picture: "Three swords piercing a heart; cloud and rain behind."
What does the Three of Swords mean?
Waite's meanings are "removal, absence, delay, division, rupture, dispersion, and all that the design signifies naturally, being too simple and obvious to call for specific enumeration"; reversed, "mental alienation, error, loss, distraction, disorder, confusion". His list of additional meanings adds "for a woman, the flight of her lover", and reversed, "A meeting with one whom the Querent has compromised; also a nun".
In older decks
Italian packs call the suit spade, swords; the British Museum's catalogue of 1876 lists it among the suit marks of the earliest cards. Papus reads it as "Realization of the enmity. Hatred."
Read next
- Next in Tarot cardsFour of SwordsThe four of swords in the tarot's Minor Arcana: the effigy of a knight lying at prayer on his tomb. A. E. Waite read it as vigilance, retreat, solitude and repose.
- The same shape in Christian symbolsINRIINRI are the initials of the Latin for “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews”, the charge the Gospel of John says Pilate had fixed to Christ’s cross. Crucifixes in the Western churches show the four letters on a small board above his head.
See also
The Fool, The Magician, The High Priestess, The Empress, The Emperor, The Hierophant.
Sources
- The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, by A. E. Waite, William Rider & Son, London, 1910 (the sacred-texts.com transcription, on the Internet Archive), The Lesser Arcana; Some Additional Meanings of the Lesser Arcana
- The Tarot of the Bohemians, by Papus, Chapman & Hall, London, 1896, translated by A. P. Morton (scan on the Internet Archive), The Divining Tarot, second lesson: the minor arcana
- A Descriptive Catalogue of Playing and Other Cards in the British Museum, by W. H. Willshire, Trustees of the British Museum, London, 1876 (scan on the Internet Archive), General history: the marks of the suits
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols formed from crosses, letters and numbers or squares and rectangles.
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed September 30, 2026. How we research
Added . Last updated .