Tarot of the Old Path Study Group - 3 swords

huredriel

Getting my initial thoughts on this card down. Here we have 3 figures ...... one woman at the forefront of the card and 2 men behind. One man is lying on the ground, only the top half of his body showing. He appears to be dead ..... with blood flowing from his head. His face is very pale .......... his tunic appears almost white ...... and his chainmail seems to be very pale green ........ all aspects I feel which denote that death has taken hold of him ...... and his lifeblood has slipped away. His right hand holds a sword, but it looks as if it is laying across his body and again the color of yellow on the blade appears muted. The other man is standing over him ....... he appears to be of robust health. He is wearing yellow/green chainmail ...... covered by a yellowy cloak attached to an outer garment of orange ...... indicative perhaps of his robustness, health and energy. He has a round yellow helmet on ...... and in his right hand holds a sword upright. The sword appears to have yellow stripes down one side ...... and green on the other ...... to me this speaks of both the practical use (green) and the mental intent (yellow).

The woman is standing ....... head bowed ... with her back to the 2 men. She is clothed in a yellow dress ....... the colour appropriate to the suit of swords ......... which appears to have 3 oval shapes cut into the side .... a reference perhaps to the number of suit? The wrists of the dress are white and very long ...... they also appear to be tied into a knot at the end ........ since I associate the colour of white with intuition ..... this makes me feel as if she has stopped listening to her inner voice. At the top of her dress, around the neck ..... is more white but this looks to be rather tight ..... perhaps denoting a choking feeling to the throat area/chakra .... not voicing her concerns. Note also there are 6 white circles around the neck area ....... which I feel are indicative of the choices she has already made. She has around her waist a thin belt .... which forms a V shape before draping down towards the ground ....... not quite sure what this means though. Her hair is long butbraided and she is weeping. In her right hand she holds a sword ...... but it is pointing to the left.... only half visible ...... and to me this is indicative of the past pain which has been inflicted.

The grass is also quite high ...... which strikes me ....... has the situation that this card is about been ongoing for some time?

I often wonder with this card ...... did the man standing in the background kill the one on the ground ...... or has he gone to see if he's alright ...... after the woman has dealt the fatal blow ........ is she crying because her love has died ...... or because she hurt him.

I also noticed the two poles ..... one on each side of the card that all the cards have in this deck ....... the left one (past seems to be very high) whilst the right one (future) is a lot lower. This makes me think that there is no going back to the past ...... what's done is done ........ and it's time get over the pain (self-inflicted or not) .... and move on with life.
 

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northsea

Nice description, I don't have anything to add except that I think the image with the defeated man and the woman's tears emphasis the traditional card meaning of sorrow.
 

Arania

I usually get the impression that the conflict in itself is what causes her grief, the conflict of life as such and the two fighting men in particular. she wants no part of it, hence the sword she does not use, but is expected to keep.