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 with the Thoth Tarot

	Obstacle 7 of Wands
Hidden Influences 3 of Swords		External Influences The Star
The Present 8 of Cups		Suggestion The Chariot
The Past The Hermit		The Outcome The Fool

 

 

 

 

The Past Card represents past events that are affecting the question.

 

The Hermit

Virgo

Wander alone; bearing the Light and thy Staff. And be the Light so bright that no man seeth thee. Be not moved by aught without or within: keep Silence in all ways.

Illumination from within, secret impulse from within; practical plans derived accordingly. Retirement from participation in current events.

 

 

 

 

The Present Card represents the current state or immediately approaching influence.

 

8 of Cups

Saturn in Pisces – Indolence

Lotuses droop for lack of sun and rain, and the soil is poison to them; only two of the stems show blossoms at all. The cups are shallow, old and broken. They are arranged in three rows; of these the upper row of three is quite empty. Water trickles from the two flowers into the two central cups, and they drip into the two lowest without filling them. The background of the card shows pools, or lagoons, in very extensive country, incapable of cultivation; only disease and miasma tic poison can flourish in those vast Bad Lands. The water is dark and muddy. On the horizon is a pallid, yellowish light, weighed down by leaden clouds of indigo.

 

 

 

 

Hidden Influences - Things that you may not be aware of, or barely be aware of.

 

3 of Swords

Saturn in Libra – Sorrow

This card is dark and heavy; it is, so to speak, the womb of Chaos. There is an intense lurking passion to create, but its children are monsters. This may mean the supreme transcendence of the natural order. Secrecy is here, and Perversion.

The symbol represents the great Sword of the Magician, point uppermost; it cuts the junction of two short curved swords. The impact has destroyed the rose. In the background, storm broods under implacable night.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Obstacle - This is the challenge.

 

7 of Wands

Mars in Leo – Valour

This card derives from Netzach (Victory) in the suit of Fire. But the Seven is a weak, earthy, feminine number as regards the Tree of Life, and represents a departure from the balance so low down on the Tree that this implies a loss of confidence.

Fortunately, the card is also attributed to Mars in Leo. The army has been thrown into disorder; if victory is to be won, it will be by dint of individual valour – a 'soldiers' battle'.

 

 

 

 

External Influences - Attitudes about this situation from people around the querent.

 

The Star

Aquarius

Use all thine energy to rule thy thought: burn up thy thought as the Phoenix.

Hope, unexpected help, clearness of vision, realisation of possibilities, spiritual insight, with bad aspects, error of judgment, dreaminess, disappointment.

 

 

 

 

Suggestion - The recommended course of action.

 

The Chariot

Cancer

The Issue of the Vulture, Two-in-One, conveyed; this is the Chariot of Power. TRINC: the last oracle.

Triumph, victory, hope, memory, digestion, violence in maintaining traditional ideas, the 'die-hard', ruthlessness, lust of destruction, obedience, faithfulness, authority under authority.

 

 

 

 

The Outcome - What will happen if the suggestion is followed.

 

The Fool

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.