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  The Wheel of Fortune |
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Hidden Influences  Page of Wands |
External Influences  7 of Cups |
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The Present  5 of Cups |
Suggestion  6 of Cups |
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The Past  The Hierophant |
The Outcome  Queen of Wands |
The Past Card represents past events that are affecting the question.
The Hierophant
Seated on his throne, the Pope symbolises the male understanding of the spiritual workings of the world and traditional values. Two monks flank him on either side.
Upright Meaning:
Tradition, custom, light, truth, marriage, alliance, captivity, servitude, mercy, inspiration, understanding, spiritual awareness.
5 of Cups
A dark, cloaked figure, looking sideways at three prone cups two others stand upright behind him; a bridge is in the background, leading to a small keep or holding.
Upright Meaning:
It is a card of loss, but something remains over; three have been taken, but two are left; it is a card of inheritance, patrimony, transmission, but not corresponding to expectations.
Page of Wands
A young man stands in the act of proclamation. He is unknown but faithful, and his tidings are strange.
Reversed Meaning:
Anecdotes, announcements, bad news. Also, indecision and the anxiety which accompanies it.
The Wheel of Fortune
The Sphinx sits atop a wheel in the sky, symbolic of the wisdom of fate. Other Egyptian characters ride the wheel as it turns, which is surrounded by four cherubs who serve as the guardians of Heaven.
Upright Meaning:
Destiny, success, elevation, luck, felicity, well-being, bliss, euphoria, fun times, good luck, fruition, godsend.
7 of Cups
Strange chalices of vision, but the images are more especially those of the fantastic spirit.
Upright Meaning:
Faerie favours, images of reflection, sentiment, imagination, things seen in the glass of contemplation – skrying; some attainment in these desires, but nothing permanent or substantial.
6 of Cups
Children in an old garden, their cups filled with flowers.
Upright Meaning:
Remembrances, looking back, as on childhood; happiness, enjoyment, but coming rather from the past; things that have vanished. Another reading reverses this, giving new relations, new knowledge, new environment, and then the children are disporting in an unfamiliar precinct.
Queen of Wands
Emotionally and otherwise, the Queen's personality corresponds to that of the King of Wands, though she is more charismatic.
Upright Meaning:
A dark woman, countrywoman, friendly, chaste, loving, honourable. If the card beside her signifies a man, she is well disposed towards him; if a woman, she is interested in you. Also indicates love of money, or a certain success in business.