This Decan is one I think about a lot. I was born in this decan (same day as Crowley actually) and I think it tends to get oversimplified.
As Teheuti points out, we’re at Binah in Yetzirah… so the great mother is there, but before everyone starts thinking of the Whole Earth Catalog, this isn’t the fluffy New Age mother, but rather the restrictive, dark, supernal womb of the Zohar. Not for nothing is she the Sea that caps the Pillar of Severity. Sorrow indeed… Tears are the widest ocean.
Saturn is the Greater Malefic so it’s entirely appropriate that this card be seen through a glass darkly… ALL of the Saturn decanates make for obstreperous cards.
But in this context, I think the most value comes from considering the decan itself: Saturn in Libra. Dignity-wise, Saturn is in his Exaltation and therefore extremely strengthened. Remember: the important thing is not the sign but rather the planet. The modern obsession with the Zodiac is an anachronism in this context. The sign is only a position, the power of astrology comes from the Planets. The PLANET is the source of light/force.
Note also, that though Saturn is exalted here, Libra is actually ruled by Venus (the lesser Benefic)… You could think of it as someone stern and scary visiting a lovely estate where his every whim is served and nothing dares get in his way.
In Greek mythology, Aphrodite (Venus) was born of the sea foam near Paphos after Cronos (Saturn) castrated his father Oranos (the Sky) with his scythe and tossed his genitals into the sea where they frothed and spontaneously generated the goddess who is the oldest of the so-called Olympians. The name Aphrodite literally means “Foam Born.” Agony produces Desire!
Or think of it elementally, Saturn is Cold and Dry, Venus is Hot and Wet. A strange blend of austerity and wit, harshness and precision, connection and detachment. Saturn is the absolute limit, the dark horizon, the scary old man out at the edge of things who points us to our beginnings and drives us home when we're passed out and yakking on our shoes. As Crowley phrases it, "A man, dark, yet delicious of countenance."
Gerald Suster has a lovely riff in his book on the Thoth about this card as the Lord of Sorrow: he points out that the 3 of Swords isn't about Suffering as in "waaaahhh I'm sad!" or "Rats I should've known he was cheating" but more an awareness of the price we pay to be alive. It is Suffering in the Mahayana sense: Suffering which always arises from Desire, the same Desire which is the underpinning of all Material Life. It's Suffering on a cosmic scale, global. The pain in Truth... I always see it as a reminder that part of being a conscious mind is accepting the pain that is a manifest part of living, not in a fatalistic sense, but in a gnostic sense. And in context it can be a beautiful positive uplifting card
There is an inherent pain to knowing how things work. Pleasure too, but at root it is a burden, a price. The Lord of Sorrows, the Three of Swords, is the tag.
Scion