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  Justice |
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Hidden Influences  2 of Wands |
External Influences  6 of Pentacles |
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The Present  The Wheel of Fortune |
Suggestion  Page of Wands |
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The Past  Page of Cups |
The Outcome  3 of Cups |
The Past Card represents past events that are affecting the question.
Page of Cups
A fair, pleasing, somewhat effeminate page, of studious and intent aspect, contemplates a fish rising from a cup to look at him. It is the pictures of the mind taking form.
Reversed Meaning:
Taste, inclination, attachment, seduction, deception, artifice.
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.
Reversed Meaning:
Increase, abundance, superfluity, comfort, gain, eminence, convenience, luxury, extravagance, benefit.
2 of Wands
A tall man looks from a battlemented roof over sea and shore; he holds a globe in his right hand, while a staff in his left rests on the battlement; another is fixed in a ring. The Rose and Cross and Lilly should be noticed on the left side.
Reversed Meaning:
Trouble, fear, physical suffering, disease, chagrin, sadness, mortification, trivial disappointments.
Justice
A female judge holds the sword of Justice in her right hand and the scales of Justice in her left. This is symbolic of fairness and the knowledge of the law, as well as the power to execute judgement.
Reversed Meaning:
Legal complications, bigotry, bias, excessive severity, conspiracy, mind games, prejudice, intolerance, discrimination.
6 of Pentacles
A person in the guise of a merchant weighs money in a pair of scales and distributes it to the needy and distressed. It is a testimony to his own success in life, as well as to his goodness of heart.
Reversed Meaning:
Desire, cupidity, envy, jealousy, illusion, resentment, rivalry, grudge.
Page of Wands
A young man stands in the act of proclamation. He is unknown but faithful, and his tidings are strange.
Upright Meaning:
Dark young man, faithful, a lover, family intelligence, a messenger, favourable testimony. A dangerous rival, if followed by the Page of Cups.
3 of Cups
Maidens in a garden-ground with cups uplifted, as if pledging one another.
Reversed Meaning:
Expedition, dispatch, achievement, end. It signifies also the side of excess in physical enjoyment, and the pleasures of the senses.