Horse Shoe Spread
Difficulty: Easy
The Horse Shoe is an old classic tarot spread. It is more advanced than the 3-card reading, yet simpler than most other spreads. It is a versatile method that can be used for most queries, though there are other spreads which would go into more depth. Like the simple Past, Present, and Future spread, it contains these cards in positions 1, 2, and 7, but also has 4 other cards that help the reader understand how to deal with the Future better. The cards are to be read as follows:
- The Past: This card represents past events that are affecting the question.
- The Present: This card represents the current state or immediately approaching influence.
- Hidden Influences: Things that you may not be aware of, or barely be aware of.
- Obstacles: This is the challenge. Obstacles might be avoided, or you may have to deal with them.
- External Influences: Attitudes and thoughts about this situation from people around the querent.
- Suggestions: Recommended course of action.
- The Final Outcome: This card represents what would happen if the suggestion is followed.
Your Horse Shoe Reading with the Thoth Tarot
Obstacle 10 of Cups |
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Hidden Influences Art |
External Influences Prince of Wands |
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The Present Knight of Cups |
Suggestion 2 of Cups |
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The Past Queen of Swords |
The Outcome The Chariot |
The Past Card represents past events that are affecting the question.
Queen of Swords
Libra
The Queen of Swords represents the watery part of Air, the elasticity of that element, and its power of transmission. She is enthroned upon the clouds. Her helmet is crested by the head of a child, and from it stream sharp rays of light, illuminating her empire of celestial dew. In her right hand, she bears a sword; in her left hand, the newly severed head of a bearded man. She is the clear, conscious perception of Idea, the Liberator of the Mind.
The person symbolised by this card should be intensely perceptive, a keen observer, a subtle interpreter, an intense individualist, swift and accurate at recording ideas; in action confident, in spirit gracious and just. Her movements will be graceful, and her ability in dancing and balancing exceptional. If ill-dignified, these qualities will all be turned to unworthy purposes. She will be cruel, sly, deceitful and unreliable; in this way, very dangerous, on account of the superficial beauty and attractiveness which distinguish her.
The Present Card represents the current state or immediately approaching influence.
Knight of Cups
Pisces
The Knight of Cups represents the fiery part of Water, the swift passionate attack of rain and springs; more intimately, Water's power of solution. He is clothed in black armour furnished with bright wings which, together with the leaping attitude of his white charger, indicates that he represents the most active aspect of Water. In his right hand he bears a cup from which issues a crab, the cardinal sign of Water, for aggressiveness. His totem is the peacock, for one of the stigmata of water in its most active form is brilliance. There is here also some reference to the phenomena of fluorescence.
The characteristics of the person signified by this card are nevertheless mostly passive, in accordance with the Zodiacal attribution. He is graceful, dilettante, with the qualities of Venus, or a weak Jupiter. He is amiable in a passive way. He is quick to respond to attraction, and easily becomes enthusiastic under such stimulus; but he is not very enduring. He is exceedingly sensitive to external in fluence, but with no material depth in his character.
Hidden Influences - Things that you may not be aware of, or barely be aware of.
Art
Sagittarius
Combination of forces, realisation, action based on accurate calculation; the way of escape, success after elaborate manoeuvres.
Obstacle - This is the challenge.
10 of Cups
Mars in Pisces – Satiety
This card represents a conflicting element. On the one hand, it receives the influence of the Ten, Malkah the Virgin. The arrangement of the cups is that of the Tree of Life. But, on the other hand, they are themselves unstable. They are tilted; they spill the water from the great Lotus which overhangs the whole system from one into the other. The work proper to water is complete: and disturbance is due.
External Influences - Attitudes about this situation from people around the querent.
Prince of Wands
Leo
The moral qualities appropriate to this figure are swiftness and strength. But he is sometimes inclined to act on impulse; sometimes easily led by external influences; sometimes, especially in trifles, a prey to indecision. He is often violent, especially in the expression of an opinion, but he does not necessarily hold the opinion about which he is so emphatic. He states a vigorous proposition for the sake of stating it. He is in fact very slow to make up his mind thoroughly on any subject, but always sees both sides of every question. He is essentially just, but always feels that justice is not to be attained in the intellectual world. His character is intensely noble and generous.
He may be an extravagant boaster, while slyly laughing both at the object of his boast and at himself for making it. One of his greatest faults is pride; meanness and pettiness of any kind he holds in infinite scorn. His courage is fanatically strong, and his endurance indefatigable. He is always fighting against odds, and always wins in the long – the very long-run. This is principally due to his enormous capacity for work, which he exercises for its own sake, 'without lust of result'.
Suggestion - The recommended course of action.
2 of Cups
Venus in Cancer – Love
The Two always represents the Word and the Will. It is the first manifestation. Therefore, in the suit of Water, it must refer to Love, which recovers unity from dividuality by mutual annihilation. The card also refers to Venus in Cancer. Cancer is, more than any other, the receptive Sign; it is the House of the Moon, and in that Sign Jupiter is exalted. These are, superficially, the three most friendly of the planets.
The hieroglyph of the card represents two cups in the foreground, overflowing upon a calm sea. They are fed with lucent water from a lotus floating upon the sea, from which rises another lotus around whose stem are entwined twin dolphins.
The number Two referring to Will, this card might really be renamed the Lord of Love under Will, for that is its full and true meaning. It shows the harmony of the male and the female: interpreted in the largest sense. It is perfect and placid harmony, radiating an intensity of joy and ecstasy.
The Outcome - What will happen if the suggestion is followed.
The Chariot
Cancer
Triumph, victory, hope, memory, digestion, violence in maintaining traditional ideas, the 'die-hard', ruthlessness, lust of destruction, obedience, faithfulness, authority under authority.
