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:

1. The Past: This card represents past events that are affecting the question.
2. The Present: This card represents the current state or immediately approaching influence.
3. Hidden Influences: Things that you may not be aware of, or barely be aware of.
4. Obstacles: This is the challenge. Obstacles might be avoided, or you may have to deal with them.
5. External Influences: Attitudes and thoughts about this situation from people around the querent.
6. Suggestions: Recommended course of action.
7. The Final Outcome: This card represents what would happen if the suggestion is followed.

Your Horse Shoe Reading

	Obstacle Adjustment
Hidden Influences The Fool		External Influences Ace of Disks
The Present The Tower		Suggestion 3 of Disks
The Past 7 of Cups		The Outcome 6 of Cups

Venus in Scorpio – Debauch

This card refers to the Seven, Netzach, in the suit of Water. Here recurs the invariable weakness arising from lack of balance; also, the card is governed by Venus in Scorpio. Her dignity is not good in this Sign; one is reminded that Venus is the planet of Copper, 'external splendour and internal corruption'. The Lotuses have become poisonous, looking like tiger-lilies; and, instead of water, green slime issues from them and overflows, making the Sea a malarious morass. It is a wholesome reminder of the fatal ease with which a Sacrament may be profaned and prostituted.

Mars

Break down the fortress of thine Individual Self, that thy Truth may spring free from the ruins.

Quarrel, combat, danger, ruin, destruction of plans, sudden death, escape from prison.

Air

In spiritual matters, the Fool means idea, thought, spirituality, that which endeavours to transcend earth.

In material matters, it may, if badly dignified, mean folly, eccentricity, or even mania.

But the essential of this card is that it represents an original, subtle, sudden impulse or impact, coming from a completely strange quarter.

All such impulses are right, if rightly received; and the good or ill interpretation of the card depends entirely on the right attitude of the Querent.

Libra

Balance against each thought its exact opposite. For the Marriage of these is the Annihilation of Illusion.

Justice, or rather justesse, the act of adjustment, suspension of all action pending decision; in material matters, may refer to law suits or prosecutions. Socially, marriage or marriage agreements; politically, treaties.

The Root of Earth

The Ace of Disks pictures the entry of that type of Energy which is called Earth. About this whirling Disk are its six Wings; the entire symbol is not only a glyph of Earth as understood in this New Aeon of Horus, but of the number 6, the number of the Sun. This card is thus an affirmation of the identity of Sol and Terra.

Mars in Capricorn – Works

The influence of Binah in the sphere of Earth shows the material establishment of the idea of the Universe, the determination of its basic form. It is ruled by Mars in Capricornus; he is exalted in that Sign, and therefore at his best. His energy is constructive, like that of the builder or engineer. The card represents a pyramid viewed from above the apex.

This pyramid is situated in the great Sea of Binah in the Night of Time, but the sea is solidified; hence the colours of the background are mottled, a cold thin dark grey with a pattern of indigo and green. The sides of the pyramid have a strong reddish tint, showing the influence of Mars.

Sun in Scorpio – Pleasure

This card shows the influence of the number Six, Tiphareth, in the suit of Water. This influence is fortified by that of the Sun, who also represents the Six. The whole image is that of the influence of the Sun on Water.

The lotus stems are grouped in an elaborate dancing movement. From their blossoms water gushes into the Cups, but they are not yet full to overflowing, as they are in the corresponding card below; the Nine. Pleasure, in the title of this card, must be understood in its highest sense: it implies well-being, harmony of natural forces without effort or strain, ease, satisfaction. Foreign to the idea of the card is the gratification of natural or artificial desires. Yet it does represent emphatically the fulfilment of the sexual Will, as shown by the ruling Sephira, planet, element, and sign.