52-Three of Athames – Upright Salem Deck

When upright, the Three of Swords suggests that you are confronting some type of separation, loss, severing of ties, or suffering that will lead to important realizations about your emotional life and aid you to grow in wisdom. This card depicts ‘stormy weather for the emotions.’ You may need to deal with feeling alienated, cut off, disappointed, grief-stricken, or alone. Because Swords are a mental and conflict-laden suit, you may be involved in disputes with friends or loved ones. A hoped-for meeting with someone you care about may not materialize. Sometimes this card points to a need for surgery, either for yourself or for someone close to you. When all is said and done, the suffering and unhappiness implied by this card offer an opportunity for a fresh start.

Keywords Upright: Necessary separation, beneficial severance, detachment, surgery, absence, grieving in order to heal, the joy of release from sorrow, insightful but stormy weather for the emotions, attainment of wisdom through suffering.

Timing: 10 Libra–20 Libra. Tropical, 3 October–12 October. Sidereal, 27 October–5 November.
Astrology: The stern taskmaster Saturn (exalted) in the second decan of airy Libra, also the realm of the Queen of Swords (Water of Air) and Justice (Libra). Saturn is linked to the World.
Number Symbolism: 3 – fertility, creativity, a triadic relationship, the first fruits of a joint venture.

Crowley/Thoth: Sorrow, unhappiness, breakups, tears, secrecy, perversion.

When Three of Athames is upright you can pretty much take it that life is going well but that’s when life takes us by surprise.  If Three of Athames is unclear it may help to choose a card from the Major Arcana to provide more insight into what it is Three of Athames is trying to tell you.  If you had a particular issue in  mind, or want to seek clarification on something else, you can also choose again to get more guidance.

This chosen card is part of your upright card reading for Three of Athames using cards from the Salem Tarot Deck. You will find many more tarot pages that will be of great help if you need tarot card meanings. Use the search at the bottom of the page. We have some amazing tarot books for you to browse. Please see below.

---

Here are some snippets from a few of my favorite books

Complete Book of Tarot: A brief example of an accurate prediction might be useful. In my teens, I did not know my exact time of birth. It was not recorded on my birth certificate, and my father could only recall that I was born in the morning. My mother died when I was eight years old, so I could not ask her. Using a technique I found in an astrology book, I calculated that I must have been born around 9:04 in the morning. Years later I found my father’s notebook in the attic and discovered that he had written: ‘Anthony, born 9:05 AM.’ I was astounded that the astrological calculation was only a minute off from the time recorded in my father’s journal! Either this was an amazing coincidence, or there was some truth to all this astrology stuff.

Tarot Books

Complete Book of Tarot: When reversed, the Three of Swords implies that you are not allowing yourself to grow as a result of your suffering. Rather than hanging on to hard feelings and keeping a dispute going, it may be time to bury the hatchet and clear the air. Clinging too long to rancor and sadness will only result in prolonged heartache. Consider the five stages of grief outlined by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (1969): (1) denial and isolation, (2) anger, (3) bargaining, (4) depression, and finally (5) acceptance. The Three of Swords is about the process of grieving and ultimately accepting and letting go in order to restore balance in your life (Saturn in Libra).

Complete Book of Tarot: From Italy, the tarot deck traveled to France where it found safe haven in the city of Marseille, a major center for the production of tarot decks in the following centuries. In Italy this deck was originally called the carte da trionfi, that is, the trump or ‘triumph cards’—a reference to the allegorical cards numbered I to XXI (with or without the inclusion of the Fool.)Historian Gertrude Moakley noted that the fifteenth-century tarot deck painted by Bonifacio Bembo followed the pattern of ancient Roman triumphal marches (trionfi) celebrated in Petrarch’s famous fourteenth-century poem ‘I Trionfi.’ Images of triumphal marches can still be seen on the triumphal arches of the Forum in Rome.

• Do get in touch if you looked for Three of Athames and we don’t have it listed. We would be more than happy to source the information for you. We hope you visit again for more online tarot information!

Complete Book of Tarot: A trump suit of twenty-two cards consisting of an unnumbered Fool and twenty-one numbered trump cards, often called the major arcana (‘greater secrets’).