3 of Swords as advice

Today I had the 3 of swords as advice next to the challenge of the Chariot.
It's hard to imagine the three of swords in an advice position. The threes are about creating and the swords are air and thoughts and mental clarity. But those three are piercing a heart. At least in the RWS I'm looking at.
So my thought is we create a lot of our own mental anguish and heartache by our own thoughts. Like thinking we shouldn't paint or write anymore because there are others who do it better. That would be sabotage to yourself. As advice, this could be a good thing.

If you have the capacity to create mental sabotage...you also have the capacity to create its antidote. I would take that as the advice

integration

I think the RWS card gets a bad wrap. Those swords (air, ideas, mental energies, etc.) are penetrating the heart (emotions). It seems to me this is an invitation, not to misery, but to integrate more fully my thoughts/intellect/ideas and my emotional life. One way, of course, is for the Swords to "cut away" all illusion. Our emotions certainly can trick us. This is a positive image for me, though I know this is a minority opinion. BB, Michael

tarobones said:

I think the RWS card gets a bad wrap. Those swords (air, ideas, mental energies, etc.) are penetrating the heart (emotions). It seems to me this is an invitation, not to misery, but to integrate more fully my thoughts/intellect/ideas and my emotional life. One way, of course, is for the Swords to "cut away" all illusion. Our emotions certainly can trick us. This is a positive image for me, though I know this is a minority opinion.

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Oh I like that, Michael!

I'm always reminded of the Sacred Heart when I see that card. Something intense and strong and right - an opening of the heart into the heart of the Divine, which, interestingly, does not take place in the emotional cups, but in the mental swords. We cannot open the heart without bringing the mind with it. I am also reminded of Leonard Cohen's line from his song Anthem: "there is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in".

This is a very personal card for me: the RWS 3 of Swords held the very first Tarot message I ever received - in my first reading, long before I studied tarot. It sat there in the middle of the reader's spread and I knew. I knew something was breaking and building up again inside me. It was the beginning of a painful but incredibly productive time of cleansing, thinking, feeling...yes - integration, as you put it, Michael.