This can't be good: cloudy, gloomy skies with rain, and three swords piercing the heart. In this case the swords are thoughts, words that some people have spoken about something or somebody we care for; they are the sorrows that torment one's heart. But people must learn from sorrow. Sorrow is the companion of lessons never learnt, lessons we are now learning the hard way. People don't learn from joy and success.
On the card
This is one of the simplest and most striking images in the whole deck. A large red heart floats in the middle of the card, pierced by three swords. One sword enters straight down from above, and the other two cross it diagonally, so that all three blades meet in the centre of the heart. There is no human figure on the card at all, no face to read and no story to follow, only the wound itself.
Behind the heart the sky is heavy and grey, filled with dark clouds, and slanting lines of rain fall across the whole scene. The rain is often read as tears, the natural release that follows pain, and also as cleansing: storms do not last forever, and rain prepares the ground for something new.
The absence of people makes the card feel universal. It is not about a particular betrayal or a particular loss, but about the experience of heartache as such. The swords belong to the suit of air and the mind, which reminds us that the deepest wounds often come through words, thoughts and painful truths rather than through physical harm.
Upright
Bad times, wounded heart, deeper understanding, hurt feelings.
Reversed
Sorrow, discord, heartbreak, separation, confusion, betrayal, loneliness, avoiding resolution of a situation.