The seven-card Horse Shoe is a convenient, basic layout that can be used to answer different types of questions, especially concerning questions where insight would be helpful. Like several other spreads, it has cards representing the past, present, and future.
The pinnacle of the Horse Shoe, looking like the top of the mountain, shows the obstacle or challenge that needs to be addressed and overcome. Card #6 suggests a course of action to meet this challenge. The final card shows the outcome or future, should this advice be followed.
Other clues are provided in Cards #3 and #5, which indicate hidden or outside influences that come into play, affecting the journey to your goal.
Obstacle  7 of Pentacles |
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Hidden Influences  2 of Swords |
External Influences  The Tower |
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The Present  Queen of Swords |
Suggestion  7 of Swords |
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The Past  The Empress |
The Outcome  The Magician |
The Past Card represents past events that are affecting the question.
The Empress
Seated on her throne, the Empress holds up the golden sceptre. She represents the archetypal female.
Reversed Meaning:
The unravelling of important matters, vacillation, difficulty, doubt, ignorance, over-possessiveness, smothering.
Queen of Swords
Her right hand raises the weapon vertically and the hilt rests on an arm of her royal chair the left hand is extended, the arm raised her countenance is severe but chastened; it suggests familiarity with sorrow. She is a bitter, unmerciful oppressor of those who fall under her reign.
Reversed Meaning:
Malice, bigotry, artifice, prudery, bale, deceit, infidelity, cheating, lack of moral values.
2 of Swords
A hoodwinked female figure balances two swords upon her shoulders.
Reversed Meaning:
Imposture, falsehood, duplicity, disloyalty, treason, back-stabbing.
7 of Pentacles
A young man, leaning on his staff, looks intently at seven pentacles attached to a clump of greenery on his right; one would say that these were his treasures and that his heart was there.
Reversed Meaning:
Somebody trying to borrow money and the anxiety that this spawns; altercation, quarrels, haggle, bad deal, rip-off, pestering, entice, con, beguile, coax, bait and switch.
The Tower
Lightning strikes the top of a Tower, knocking the crown off the top. Reminiscent of the Tower of Babel, two figures fall from grace.
Reversed Meaning:
Oppression, imprisonment, trap, tyranny, hardship, torment, persecution, coercion.
7 of Swords
A man in the act of carrying away five swords hastily; missing two which remain stuck in the ground. He is a thief. A camp is close at hand.
Reversed Meaning:
A dangerous plan that may fail, quarrelling, annoyance, disturbance, thievery, crime, slander, babbling.
The Magician
A robed figure performs the act of ceremonial magic in order to direct his will to perform his desires.
Upright Meaning:
Skill, subtlety, clandestine, self-confidence, willpower, determination, action, initiative, talent, ability.