The Tarot of Eli 2, LLC: Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot- Three of Swords & The Modern Witch Tarot-3 of Swords

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Again, the Rider-Waite-Smith Three of Swords card chooses to represent a more mundane approach as Waite didn't wish to expose arcane lodge secrets. The cloudy and crying sky, (Air is the element of this card) supports a Heart (Psyche/Soul) pierced by Three Swords. This implies the sorrow is deeply felt in the three states of mind: The Psyche, the unconscious and the consciousness. It is also the ternary goddess of Maid, Mother and Crone. In past blogs on the subject of the Qabalistic Binah- the Great Mother Womb of consciousness, you may remember that Binah is the Third Sephiroth who is the intelligence behind the 3's, and is called: Understanding. She is also named the Sanctifying Intelligence and the Parent of Faith. Here is the implication that any religion of any sect, could not have a "church" without this underlying structure of Sanctifying Intelligence. As Mary is the Church, in Catholic doctrine, so is Binah the Parent of Faith...not the faith itself, but its intelligent parental creatrix in the Universal Collective Unconscious, that is the foundation of organization, structure and sanctity. However, this "Sorrow" (heart break) is deeply felt and is known as the "Universal Melancholy"; a deep sorrow from understanding that all beauty that is created must be destroyed, as a Self-Awareness progresses., it must destroy what it was and rebuild what it "now" is. A loving mother, who not only creates but also must destroy her children, breeds a great sorrow...greater than we experience when "losing" a loved one for we are not the perpetrator of their destruction.  

The Modern Witch Tarot- 3 of Swords, is a modernization of the Rider-Waite-Tarot- Three of Swords. Here, the Trinity of the Divine Feminine is shown as a heart pierced by 3 swords , surrounded by the same rainy sky. Thereby, creating an image of a "bleeding heart" and tears, implying one is in for betrayal or heartbreak. The implication here is that someone close to you has hurt you deeply, betrayed your trust, or has been deeply inconsiderate of you. However, these feelings are "imagined" by you, as an reaction to expectations not being met. You may have to go in deeper, and seek the inner child whose fear of rejection is the motivating factor of their "survival thinking". Yes, we hurt ourselves with emotional flails over the actions of others. We also have empathy and often feel sorrow delt out by the actions of tragedy. The journey towards enlightenment means we must learn to act rather than react and to allow others to be whatever they think they are. and to "let go and let goddess"; For their actions don't build our karma, only their own. It's best to grieve over loss, and then move on, for a new motion can now be built as your "life" journey. It behooves us to remember we are Life, and not seeking it. We are the breath of the body; Therefore, it's life, and the body's journey is to build a Hero personality, that can meet all challenges and still stand in the face of all odds. If this was "easy" none of us would need to do it. Often "tough love" must be needed, to get us up out of the mud of our own sorrow, and move on. Therefore, when "down," I say to my brain, " Get over yourself, and get on with you, for impeccability is what we do"!

Dr. Paul Foster Case, the founder of the Builders of The Adytum (B.O.T.A.) named the 3 of Swords, the Sanctifying Intelligence. This ideology of Sorrow Sanctifying one is also shown by the Great Sufi 12th Century poet, Mustafa Jahaladine Rumi, who stated: "Sorrow prepares you for joy, it violently sweeps everything out of your house, so new joy can find a space to enter. It shakes the yellow leaves from the bough of your heart, so that fresh green leaves can grow in their place. It pulls up the rotten roots, so that new roots hidden beneath have room to grow. Whatever sorrow shakes from your heart, far better things will take their place."

You may ask what a sanctifying intelligence, has to do with sorrow? To make this simple, she is the Crone in this card, whose symbol is traditionally an Owl. The Crone represents Wisdom and is the death of the false you that you think you are, and the Crone is all sorrowful for the destruction she must make on those creations she Loves into being as Mother. As Mother, the Trinity Goddess Knows/Understands you into Manifestation, and after mankind has programed you, what you think you are, is all words and confusion, i.e., falsehood. created by "the few who wish to rule the many," i.e., those who rule definition. Also, in your bright and beautiful celestial soul resides this great sorrow of having to be both the life and death of your physical body. To have, to take or lose the life of one you experience and love is a deeply sorrowful experience; for even the most evil/perverted of us Loves our body. Therefore, all that Creates, is full of sorrow as well as love. The shadow image of love is sorrow. In the universe of things, you can't have one with out the other.

Let me explain: many of us think that "freedom of choice" is happiness, but we forget that in order to have "freedom of choice", we must have a beginning and an end, for form requires measurement. As Spirit, we just Are and/or infinite willed-energy without measurement! In the One Energy there is no up, no down, no in and no out; We just are as timeless frequency, everywhere and nowhere at the same time. But as a Spiritual Soul who runs a material body as "self-awareness", we are both Transmitter and the Transmitted giving us the freedom to choose up, down, in or out and/or our own identity. What few of us choose to remember is that freedom is really free-doom (Anglo-Saxon for "I choose my own death"), not only do we get to choose our own definitions of self, we also get to choose our body's death/fate. Be it ignorant or intelligent choice, it is still the Soul's choice that we often call "fate". Freedom of choice also brings great sorrow and great joy, love and sadness etc. Again, we have bodies so that we may form the necessary "software" to operate the "Wet Ware" of the Living Measurement of I AM Me; in other words, a discriminating operational personality (personal representative) called "Me". Often when we think we are "doing the right thing", we find out we've been in error, and rather than correct this error, we blame ourselves or other's and feel great shame or sorrow over being in error or dubbed into error by our trust in others. This is called "progress" for 50% of all Wisdom, is error. The other 50% is understanding and thereby, correcting that error.

Spirit is Willed Energy, and it doesn't discriminate as all is of it, in it and as it and what is experienced through "in- form- action" becomes Knowledge which is neither good nor bad. Hence, Spirit's Self- Measurement begins as I AM, which denotes existence, but as what "I AM" (Me), hasn't been decided yet. Therefore, all "Me's" are an assumption. Only after much Wisdom (Chokmah) and Understanding (Binah) can a truly functionable "I Am Me" be decided. No one else can identify you.

Then there is the fact that Chesed, the 4th Sephiroth-Mercy, is the architect who designs the measurement for "what is form" and Geburah, the 5th Sephiroth-Severity , who is ruling planet is Saturn, adds "Time" that Chesed must design in , and therefore, the severity of challenges, which are the movement behind progress. are applied to "being alive". To gain intimacy with all creation, the Soul, must have a physical form as a self-expression, and since form begins, it must also have an end. It's okay to have cleansing tears running down your face when you take new action, for being a progressive identity is your destiny, and not a "punishment". Hence this card's message is that when other's decide to progress differently than you, let them go, for above all things, you must know yourself!

When thrown in divination, the 3 of Swords implies:

• Removal.
• Absence.
• Delay.
• Division.
• Rupture.
• Dispersion.
• Heart break.

If reversed:

• Mental alienation.
• Error.
• Loss.
• Distraction.
• Disorder.
• Confusion. 

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