Three of Cups

Element: Water

Imagery: Three women raise cups in a circle, surrounded by harvest imagery.

General Themes: Celebration, shared joy, emotional integration.

Three of Cups Upright

This is a card of celebration and connection. Enjoy it!

Reconnect with yourself and those you love. Honor the relationships in your life and the magic that comes from joyful relationality.

This card is an invitation to party! Relax, have fun, and spend time with people who make your life better. Upright, this card can also ask you to embrace a celebratory spirit, even if you’re just going about your daily tasks. How can you invite more fun and connection into your life?

I always think of the Three Graces in Greek mythology when I see this card: Beauty, Charm, and Joy. Invoke their bounty when they appear. This is not a card for playing it safe or being demure. Be loud in your enthusiasm and the world will respond.

Three of Cups Reversed

Reversed, this card is still very much a relational card. Instead of seeking out company, however, this card asks you to find joy in solitude. This is the time to nourish your internal life and relish some much-needed alone time.

Self-care is your priority right now, as are creative endeavors, so don’t hesitate to carve out time for either. Healthy relationships come out of a relationship to the self, so don’t neglect the importance of tending to your needs. In fact, this card asks you to celebrate it!

This is also one of the cards that asks you to cultivate divine receptivity. It’s not about going out and doing all the things, but nourishing openness and creating a life that allows good things to enter. Let go and relax. Trust that the Three Graces will find you when you aren’t trying so hard to find them.

The Bruja’s Guide to Tarot is the divination sister to the scholarly The Bruja Professor, a witchy take on literature, the occult & pop culture, and Enchantment Learning & Living, an inspirational blog celebrating life’s simple pleasures, everyday mysticism, and delectable recipes that are guaranteed to stir the kitchen witch in you.

If you enjoyed what you just read and believe that true magic is in the everyday…and good conversations with the tarot, subscribe to my newsletter below for regular doses of enchantment. Want even more inspiration? Follow me on Instagram and Facebook. Here’s to a magical life!

Three of Wands

Element: Fire

Imagery: A figure stands on a cliff with three planted wands, watching ships move outward.

General Themes: Expansion, anticipation, the results of earlier choices.

Three of Wands Upright

The Three of Wands is an expansive card. Wands are all about raw energy and potential, so it’s important to take advantage of that energy when it appears; otherwise, it will disperse. This card specifically wants you to explore new horizons. Those could be a literal invitation to travel, get out of your comfort zone, or try something new.

More often, the Three of Wands invites you to cultivate an expansive mindset. Look at the world around you from a fresh perspective. Reimagine a situation and look for ways to encourage stagnant energy to flow.

This is a time to dream big and explore your potential. Think about the best possible outcome and go after it. Embody your hopes and dreams. Feel them deep in your bones, then work on bringing them into the world.

Three of Wands Reversed

When reversed, this card specifically wants you to focus on the present moment. Stay grounded and don’t get carried away longing for greener pastures someplace else. Sometimes the best way to move forward with your life is to stay rooted in the here and now.

Keep your gaze forward. The past is in the past. Focus on your present moment and trust that it will help you create a more positive future. This includes editing your self-talk and internal monologue. Does it welcome change and flow? Or do negative thought patterns stifle creative energy? Your energy flows where your thoughts go, so direct them toward forward movement and grounded healing.

The Bruja’s Guide to Tarot is the divination sister to the scholarly The Bruja Professor, a witchy take on literature, the occult & pop culture, and Enchantment Learning & Living, an inspirational blog celebrating life’s simple pleasures, everyday mysticism, and delectable recipes that are guaranteed to stir the kitchen witch in you.

If you enjoyed what you just read and believe that true magic is in the everyday…and good conversations with the tarot, subscribe to my newsletter below for regular doses of enchantment. Want even more inspiration? Follow me on Instagram and Facebook. Here’s to a magical life!

Three of Swords

Element: Air

Imagery: A heart pierced by three swords beneath storm clouds.

General Themes: Painful clarity, grief, truth that wounds but has the potential to liberate.

Three of Swords Upright

This card speaks of tremendous heartbreak. And this isn’t the type of heartbreak that magically goes away. In fact, when we talk about healing from heartbreak, we seldom discuss the fundamental truth of this kind of pain: healing looks a lot like like learning to live with the emotional scarring. In other words, we don’t have to forget the pain, but we have to learn to let our heart grow around the wound.

At its most empowering, the Three of Swords is an invitation to embody relational expansiveness. Healing is honoring the history you lived through and not letting it shut you down emotionally.

Embodied feeling offers transcendence. It might sound counterintuitive, but feeling what you need to feel allows you to free yourself from those heavy emotions. As tough as this card is, at its heart (pun intended), it’s about remaining expansive and open even when feelings are difficult. Those difficult feelings remind you that you’re human.

Three of Swords Reversed

Upright, this card explores how to survive serious heartbreak. Reversed, it symbolizes a profound release of pain. The three swords slide out of the upside-down heart, suggesting an effortlessness to this movement, which often happens after time, space, and processing have done their work. It doesn’t mean that you will never feel the pain of that heartbreak again, only that it no longer controls your life.

This card reversed ushers in a period of emotional recovery. Embrace the process. Go slow. Be quiet. Allow yourself to recharge and don’t feel the need to rush out of this liminal space.

It’s also important during this time to resist the temptation to indulge in negative thinking. That only reopens the wounds. Let go, move on, and feel the relief that comes from letting past pain stay in the past.

Move forward with emotional clarity and an open heart.

The Bruja’s Guide to Tarot is the divination sister to the scholarly The Bruja Professor, a witchy take on literature, the occult & pop culture, and Enchantment Learning & Living, an inspirational blog celebrating life’s simple pleasures, everyday mysticism, and delectable recipes that are guaranteed to stir the kitchen witch in you.

If you enjoyed what you just read and believe that true magic is in the everyday…and good conversations with the tarot, subscribe to my newsletter below for regular doses of enchantment. Want even more inspiration? Follow me on Instagram and Facebook. Here’s to a magical life!

Three of Pentacles

Element: Earth

Imagery: Three figures work together within a sacred architectural space.

General Themes: Skill, collaboration, building something meaningful with others.

Three of Pentacles Upright

This card emphasizes meaningful collaboration and hard work. It’s not about hard work for the sake of hard work, but productive labor. There’s a magic to applying yourself to your craft, day in, day out. The Three of Pentacles is an invitation to bring your dream to life. You have the vision and the ability; now you just need to apply yourself. This isn’t a time for shortcuts, vision without action, or self-doubt. Apply yourself, and the seeds you plant will sprout.

It might not feel like you are making progress in the moment. The key is to embrace the process. Think of it as a form of conjuring. The time, energy, and effort you put into your task will ultimately pay off.

Three of Pentacles Reversed

The reversal of this card asks you to slow down. Take your time with new projects. Things might feel stagnant, so it is important that you examine where the energetic blockage is and move from there.

In its upright form, this card encourages collaborative work. Here, the card gives you permission to work solo, if you need to, or at least on a smaller scale, both socially and in terms of the scope of your project.

Return to the basics. Find your inspiration in the daily practice of showing up, even if you don’t have all the answers yet. Let new inspiration come from your devotion to your craft and from practicing the fundamental skills that got you where you are. They will come when the universe knows you’re willing to do the work.

The Bruja’s Guide to Tarot is the divination sister to the scholarly The Bruja Professor, a witchy take on literature, the occult & pop culture, and Enchantment Learning & Living, an inspirational blog celebrating life’s simple pleasures, everyday mysticism, and delectable recipes that are guaranteed to stir the kitchen witch in you.

If you enjoyed what you just read and believe that true magic is in the everyday…and good conversations with the tarot, subscribe to my newsletter below for regular doses of enchantment. Want even more inspiration? Follow me on Instagram and Facebook. Here’s to a magical life!

The Fours

After the excitement of the first three cards in the Minor Arcana, the Fours offer a welcome respite. You’ve completed a cycle and can now enjoy some stability. In fact, the Fours love stability so much that they focus on developing a strong foundation, laying the groundwork for future joy, and appreciating closure, calmness, and connection. 

The Fours also represent the search for unity and cohesion. These cards, after so much growing in the Aces, Twos, and Threes, offer time to reflect and metabolize our experiences so as to move forward in a more grounded way. They serve as the necessary pause before moving forward.

Four of Pentacles

Four of Swords

Four of Wands

Four of Cups

Image Description: Starry background with the words, “The Bruja’s Guide to Tarot: The Fours: Stability, Connection, Calmness.”

The Bruja’s Guide to Tarot is the divination sister to the scholarly The Bruja Professor, a witchy take on literature, the occult & pop culture, and Enchantment Learning & Living, an inspirational blog celebrating life’s simple pleasures, everyday mysticism, and delectable recipes that are guaranteed to stir the kitchen witch in you.

If you enjoyed what you just read and believe that true magic is in the everyday…and good conversations with the tarot, subscribe to my newsletter below for regular doses of enchantment. Want even more inspiration? Follow me on Instagram and Facebook. Here’s to a magical life!

The Threes

After the potential of the Aces and the balancing act of the Twos, the Threes invite creativity and expansiveness. Now is the time to explore the world, innovate, and dream big. As with all cards, however, the key is to stay focused on what you want the energy of the Threes to do, otherwise you might be prone to distraction.

These cards are always asking you to lean into whatever it is you need to do, feel, or manifest, even if it feels difficult or scary. As an uneven number, it has not yet reached wholeness but has the strong foundation to help you achieve what you need. 

Three of Pentacles

Three of Swords

Three of Wands

Three of Cups

Image Description: Starry background with the words, “The Bruja’s Guide to Tarot: The Threes: Creativity, Expansiveness, Exploration.”

The Bruja’s Guide to Tarot is the divination sister to the scholarly The Bruja Professor, a witchy take on literature, the occult & pop culture, and Enchantment Learning & Living, an inspirational blog celebrating life’s simple pleasures, everyday mysticism, and delectable recipes that are guaranteed to stir the kitchen witch in you.

If you enjoyed what you just read and believe that true magic is in the everyday…and good conversations with the tarot, subscribe to my newsletter below for regular doses of enchantment. Want even more inspiration? Follow me on Instagram and Facebook. Here’s to a magical life!