Reader · 15 min · Free preview
Hard cards
Death, The Tower, The Devil, the Ten of Swords and the Three of Swords: read them as processes, and say them honestly and kindly, to yourself and to others.
In this lesson you will
- Read five hard cards as processes, and place each one in time.
- Deliver a hard card in four steps: picture, process, what can be done, question.
- Avoid both doom and false comfort when a hard card appears.
You are reading three cards for a friend who is worried about her relationship, and the Ten of Swords turns up in the middle. Before you can say a word, she asks: “That one looks terrible. Is it bad?” What you say in the next ten seconds matters more than any meaning you have memorized.
Five cards that frighten people
Most of the fear in tarot gathers around five cards. Each one describes something painful that people really live through, and each one, read in full, also shows a way through:
- Death: an ending that is underway and makes room for what comes next.
- The Tower: the sudden fall of something built on a shaky base, and a truth that comes out.
- The Devil: a hold, such as a habit, a fear or a bond, that can be seen and loosened.
- Ten of Swords: a painful ending that has already happened; the worst is over.
- Three of Swords: a sorrow that has been named, so it can be grieved.
None of the five is a sentence passed on anyone. In this lesson you learn to read them that way and, just as important, to say them that way: honestly, without doom and without false comfort.
Warm up
A quick look back before the new material. Recalling helps you remember.
Warm-up
In a Situation, Obstacle, Advice reading for “How can I move on after a close friendship ended?”, the Three of Swords lands in the Advice position. Which reading fits best?
Warm-up
In a career reading, The Tower appears in the Present position the same week your department is suddenly closed. Which reading fits that position?
Warm-up
Three months after a long relationship ended, someone says: “It is over, and it hurt more than anything ever has. This morning I made a real breakfast for the first time in weeks.” Which card fits this better: the Ten of Swords or The Tower?
Look first
Look at these three cards before reading on. For each one, find one honest thing to say about the pain in the picture, and one thing in the picture that is not pain.
Remember
- Death, The Tower, The Devil, the Ten of Swords and the Three of Swords describe processes people live through, not sentences passed on them.
- Deliver a hard card in four steps: say what the picture shows, name the process and its time, point to what can be done, and hand the question back.
- Find the hope in the picture, never in a wish to comfort; when a card has none, as with the Three of Swords, its honesty is the help.
Sources: original VeilSoul text · VeilSoul card pages · the 1909 Waite–Smith imagery (public domain) · A. E. Waite, 1911 (public domain)