Does 3 of swords always mean cheating/infidelity.

Bonny said:

Hey O,

I had three of swords show up for a month once and it was fantastic for me.
It involved a lot of heartbreaking healing, privately gone through mostly, and wasn't related at all to the man in my life. It was a time for me to face me and the honesty was what burst my heart open in albeit painful tears of sorrow that led to joy.

...beautiful time in my life ! Not easy. But magnificent.

Bonny

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That's something that occured to me too, that the card can mean a kind of release, as you say, the tears that led to joy. Pent up emotion spilling out and giving a cathartic experience.

But the 3 of swords doesn't have to be associated with the gruesome picture on the Rider Waite of a heart being pierced, of course, although I assume that's what this thread was mainly based on. Using non-scenic pips instead is quite liberating, as it encourages you to interpret minor arcana cards differently. For instance, simply by the number and the suit. In which case, the 3 of swords could mean something entirely different, for example forming an intellectual endeavour or creating a new challenge of some kind.

No card by itself always means anything. It's combinations of cards that carry the real message of a spread. Of course, if you're just doing a quickie answer to something and draw only one card, then you're going to use whatever the meaning is as your answer. But in a spread using more than one card, it's the combined meaning that will bring you the surest answer.