Horse Shoe Spread

Difficulty: Easy

The Horse Shoe is a classic tarot spread. It is more advanced than the three-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 four other tarot cards that help the reader understand how to deal with the future better. The cards are to be read as follows:

1. The Past: Past events affecting the question.
2. The Present: The current state or approaching influence.
3. Hidden Influences: Things the reader may not be aware of (or barely be aware of).
4. Obstacles: This is the challenge: obstacles may be avoided or may have to be dealt with.
5. External Influences: Attitudes and thoughts regarding people around the reader.
6. Suggestions: Recommended course of action.
7. Outcome: The result of following the suggestions.

Your Horse Shoe Reading

	Obstacle Five of Swords
Hidden Influences Eight of Cups		External Influences Queen of Pentacles
The Present Five of Cups		Suggestion Knight of Cups
The Past Seven of Swords		The Outcome Four of Pentacles

Sneaky. Devious. Sly. Stealth. Your troubles are hiding in plain sight. Underhanded, theft, robbery, unreliability, betrayal, spying, dishonour, deceit, suspicion. Mistrust. Look differently. Pause and expand outwardly. Take a day off in the middle of the week. Feel into your blind spots as they are actively deceiving you! Like the hand. Like the seventh sword. Feel the meditation of being able to hide in plain sight! You are OFF and THERE at one and the same time. Everywhere to be seen, and nowhere to be found.

Feel YOUR place. You may not be as exposed as you think. You MAY simply be in a place of creation or new place. Feel YOUR place, not your clever. The cards do not indicate your path, here. YOU DO!, with wonderful placement and awareness. Drop your stones. Your placement supersedes your trepidation. STAND and deliver!, from wherever you are IN A NEW WAY!. Silence is deliverance as well. Feel the contradiction. Feel your place in your multi-faceted context! Discern between the negativity of no-one noticing you vs the same thing indicating stealth.

The 5 of Cups indicates rough, turbulent, or confusing times. Possible loss, or loss already occurred are also indicated. Cups indicate that all is not lost, though. Like the seagull seeing something positive in the tumultuous sea, hope for the future and treasure discovered in your emotions is indicated.

Reversal often indicates the presence of a similar but inner, aspect streaming in the unconscious.

The 8 of Cups indicates listlessness, lack of purpose, or a moving away from what no longer works to something new. Thinking of the 7 of Cups, the baby steps of your new actions are just poking through as with new noses poking up in your garden.

The 8 of Cups also indicates to be neither patient nor anxious. Telling your dahlias to hurry may just be laughable to the dahlias. Let in the laughable of your current situation. Travel may also be indicated, some travel even as simple as a stroll through an unfamiliar park or place. Sometimes it's best to let things clear on their own accord. Feel free to lose your focus and forget your troubled inertia. Forgetting is often for getting what you're missing.

* A manner of reading a reversal is to emphasise rather than a reversed meaning, an internal meaning relating more to one's inner self than indicating the outer world. Read the card with your inner context, what it says to you about your inner person.

The 5 of Swords indicates feeling an overwhelming sense of defeat. Everything is out to get you or there is no way out. Beware of truth- against-the-world thinking as it is only ego-echoes tantrum-ing through what may be depression or low energy. Your ego's socio-pathing you so to speak, and remember that some studies have shown that it can only tantrum for 2 minutes at a time. Right now, its endurance may be dealing you successive strikes. Weather this storm as your inner storm making your outer one. Cease pitying yourself! Cease pitying yourself! DO NOT return the ego-echo's call! You DO NOT need to perfect yourself to be loved! Feel that!

The 5 of Swords indicates that with some careful reassessment, or simply a good bout of forgetting transparent beliefs, you will be free to accomplish your visualised outcomes again before too long. Go get the oil changed in your car if it's time, and empathise with that process. Google it. You might just feel like you've exploded. There WAS calm before the storm. You will MAKE calm as it becomes AFTER the storm. Do it differently this time, though. The landscape may be a little different after a storm.

Also, think about it this way: as with splitting wood with an adze which is stuck and all work is stopped. Stop pulling. Stop whacking. Tap your adze. Get yourself out of your heart knot and wipe your brow.

The Queen of Pentacles indicates the qualities of a practical, down-to-earth woman, whether you are a woman or a man. Enthusiastic. May own a successful business. Always encouraging friends and family to exercise, nourishing by promoting to take care. Some say water conforms to its cup. You know this all too well to the point where you may see no problem with the idea that buying a Steinway piano might make a child Mozart. . .as you know only too well the far-reaching (both inner and outer) merits of a good environment, whether what's obvious is the focus or not.

This queen also indicates that you may even cherish a vehicle, or simply a well-designed dashboard in a convertible as important if you drive a bunch. Simply put, if it's going to be in your presence, it should at the very least be attractive, distinct, as exquisite to you is staple, required. The usefulness of beauty as being positive to your environment is understood.

Exquisite fetches wood and carries water, stokes the fire, exudes presence with a strong grace. These are qualities through and through, specifically and in general.

Even in silence, tasteful enthusiasm is indicated. Tasteful is a great word for you here.

The Knight of Cups indicates that things have taken on emotional or intuitive modes. Emotion or intuition will lead the way to your destination.

The 4 of Pentacles indicates that you support rather than bearing the weight of the world. Material strength. Stability. Power in any material form that expresses the abundance or your security and stability. Strength of body. Strength of your fortress.

The power of your bank balance. In whatever manner the material realm brings you security and stability, this is it. Note your material context.