Sessurea Reads

Upright

Three swords pierce a vivid red heart suspended against a heavy gray sky, rain falling—perhaps the most direct image in the entire deck, and for that reason alone one of the hardest. The Three of Swords upright is pain, it is grief, it is the wound of betrayal, rejection, a word spoken that should never have been said. Being swords—the suit of mind and language—this pain almost always carries something that was voiced: a cruel truth, a criticism that cut deep, a disappointment that still hurts to remember. There's no way to soften this card, and that's not what it's asking for anyway: it asks you to recognize the pain for exactly what it is, without minimizing it, because only then does it actually, truly begin to pass.

Reversed

Inverted, the swords begin to withdraw from the heart—the Three of Swords reversed is pain already being processed, healing underway after a period of intense suffering. It doesn't mean the grief has completely disappeared, but that the worst of it has fallen behind you, and with each passing day it grows a little lighter to carry what happened. (…)