The Three of Swords is the third card of the suit of swords. The suit is present in Italian, Spanish, and tarot decks.
This card depicts a fundamentally sorrowful experience—tarot readers suggest this may be in the form of a lost relationship, an accidental death, or some other form of not just depression or malaise but deeply emotional sorrow. When the card appears "reversed" in a spread, this is not usually read as meaning the "opposite" of sorrow, but rather a sorrow that is somehow mitigated by its circumstances or that is not as bad as it could have been. It is among the most negative cards within the tarot deck.[1]