Queering the Tarot by Cassandra Snow

Author:Cassandra Snow
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9781633411029
Publisher: Red Wheel Weiser

THE TWO, THREE, AND FOUR OF SWORDS

The Two, Three, and Four of Swords make more sense if we queer them as a group and look at the narrative, similar to the approach we took with the Wands. While these three cards are thematically opposed, there's a clear message of mental clarity, heartbreak, and fallout in them. We start with the Two of Swords, a card that most often shows up in times of indecision due to the gravity of the choice at hand, or for situations where we've exhausted our options and are at a stalemate. In either case, our judgment becomes clouded and we feel blind to options and ways out. I have a deck that has colored how I see this card, where the Two regularly indicates that you know exactly what you're meant to do now, but doing so requires a leap of faith and insists that you not use that famous Swords logic to its full extent.

This card interestingly gives way to the Three of Swords, one of the most feared but important cards in the deck. Its most commonly used keyword is simply heartbreak. As this card follows the Two, I often see it as the result of what happens when you take a leap of faith. Either you're called to take the leap and it doesn't work out, or taking the leap requires sacrifices and emotional processing you didn't expect. Alternatively, if the Two means we're at a stalemate in a relationship or business situation, the Three sees us leaving that in a way that is devastating, even if it is for the best. This leads us to the Four of Swords, a card of rest, meditation, and recuperation. After the action-packed time that the Two leads us into and the emotional exhaustion of the Three, the Four calls us to take care of ourselves, putting our bodies at rest and clearing our minds for a bit.

As an LGBTQQIP2SA+ person, this mini-suit within the Swords suit often tells a very frank coming out story. If we look at coming out as something that is not straight and cisgender, we start with feeling trapped in the decision of whether to do so or not. At some point our own logic and perspective become cloudy like they do in that Two. Eventually though, most of us have to make the decision to come out. That can, unfortunately, also lead to the sadness and despair of the Three. There are many cards you can throw down and see the coming out process, but the Three of Swords is one of the only cards that straightforwardly reminds us that sometimes we really do lose family and friends as part of that process. The response to that is the Four: time to rest and prioritize caring for ourselves since we are seemingly on our own in this next phase.

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