Arieli's Three of Swords

Month: Tishrei (Days of Rain)

Numerology: The number three indicates a flowering, something created from the energy of the suit. It is the synthesis of the one’s thesis and the two’s antithesis. In Pythagorean philosophy, the number three (triad) represents energy and unity restored. According to Joanna Powell Colbert, threes means harmony, flow, and abundance. The third sefirah on the Tree of Life is Binah, Understanding.

Arieli’s Three of Swords: shows a partially constructed sukkah. A table with tools upon it sits in the center of the structure and, oddly, branches already cover the roof of the incomplete sukkah. A man wields a sword, rather than the saw that lies on the table, to remove a branch from a tree. The ground is littered with discarded twigs. Men are required to dwell in a sukkah for all seven days of the Sukkot festival, to recall that the Israelites dwelt in temporary shelters after the exodus from Egypt; both men and women are required to participate in the mitzvah of waving of the lulav during the festival of Sukkot.

Arieli assigns these meanings to the Three of Swords:
Upright: construction, repairs, renovations
Reversed: an incomplete state, not a permanent solution

Arieli’s description of the card: In this card, swords are used as tools to construct a sukkah, a temporary structure with a roof through which stars are visible. Here a Jew finishes building the first two walls of a sukkah and begins to take branches form a tree to build a third wall. The building of a sukkah begins immediately after Yom Kippur. [Arileli cites tractate Sukkah page 4, which includes discussion of the regulations for building a kosher sukkah.]

The RWS Three of Swords: Clouds and rain are the backdrop for a large, red heart pierced by three swords. Pamela Coleman Smith adapted this image from a 15th century deck known as the Sola Busca Tarot.

Traditionally, this card signifies: loss, alienation, betrayal, mental anguish, being obsessed with old pain, failure, misfortune, suffering, and “all that the design signifies naturally, being too simple and obvious to call for specific enumeration.” Reversed, it may suggest: forgiveness or gaining insights through written or spoken words.

Comparison between the cards: The RWS Three of Swords is straightforward in its symbolism, but the image of a heart pierced by three swords is tired and cliché from overuse. Arieli’s image of an inexperienced builder using the wrong tool to jury rig a temporary dwelling is awkward, but that awkwardness may be part of the card’s significance.

Relationship with Major Arcana: The third sefirah on the Tree of Life is Binah, Understanding. It is the place of receptivity and resistance. Binah is associated with the left temple of the head, which, if balanced with Chokhmah, the right temple, can bring insight. “Understand with wisdom. Be wise with understanding.” (Sefer Yetzirah 1:4)

Arieli’s connects the third sefirah to HaShekhinah, his High Priestess card. The Lurianic partzufim (faces) of the third sefirah are Imma and Tevunah, Mother and Comprehension.

Tarot has a couple of bizarre twists on mathematics. In one system, you add the digits of a card to reduce it to a single number. In the other system, you reduce a card’s number by ten. Each of the following cards has a value of three:

3=3 Arieli’s Shekhinah (RWS Empress)
12=1+2=3 Arieli’s Justice (RWS Hanged Man)
13=13-10=3 Arieli’s Hanged Man (RWS Death)
21=2+1=3 Arieli’s Judgment Day (RWS World)

Visually, there is a resonance between Arieli’s Three of Swords and his High Priestess card, HaShekhinah; a clumsy human attempt to mirror the work of a celestial architect, to make a mishkan (dwelling place) for the Shekhinah. The tree in Hanged Man is also bare and sad looking, like that in the Three of Swords.

The RWS Three of Swords resonates emotionally with The Hanged Man and Death. The Empress and The World seem much more positive.

Magical uses according to Tyson: to cause unhappiness, sorrow, or tears; to make a disruption or separation.