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  2 of Wands |
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Hidden Influences  5 of Swords |
External Influences  2 of Swords |
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The Present  9 of Swords |
Suggestion  8 of Swords |
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The Past  10 of Cups |
The Outcome  6 of Pentacles |
The Past Card represents past events that are affecting the question.
10 of Cups
Appearance of Cups in a rainbow; it is contemplated in wonder and ecstasy by a man and woman below, evidently husband and wife. His right arm is about her; his left is raised upward; she raises her right arm. The two children dancing near them have not observed the prodigy but are happy after their own manner. There is a home-scene beyond.
Upright Meaning:
Contentment, repose of the entire heart; the perfection of that state; also, perfection of human love and friendship; also, the town, village or country you live in.
9 of Swords
One seated on her couch in lamentation, with the swords over her. She is as one who knows no sorrow which is like unto hers. It is a card of utter desolation.
Reversed Meaning:
Imprisonment, suspicion, doubt, reasonable fear, shame, bad vibes, negativity, evil thoughts, despair.
5 of Swords
A disdainful man looks after two retreating and dejected figures. Their swords lie upon the ground. He carries two others on his left shoulder, and a third sword is in his right hand, point to earth. He is the master in possession of the field.
Upright Meaning:
Degradation, destruction, revocation, infamy, dishonour, loss, disdain, notoriety.
2 of Wands
A tall man looks from a battlemented roof over sea and shore, holding 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 are on the left side.
Upright Meaning:
Marriage not possible, riches, fortune, magnificence, surprise, wonder, enchantment, emotion.
2 of Swords
A hoodwinked female figure balances two swords upon her shoulders.
Upright Meaning:
Conformity and the equipoise which it suggests, courage, friendship, concord in a state of arms; another reading gives tenderness, affection, intimacy, harmony and other favourable happenings.
8 of Swords
A woman, blindfolded and bound, with the swords of the card around her. Yet it is rather a card of temporary endurance than of irretrievable bondage.
Upright Meaning:
Bad news, violent chagrin, crisis, censure, power in trammels, conflict, calumny, sickness, having one's hands tied, insanity.
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.
Upright Meaning:
Presents, gifts, gratification, attention, vigilance, prudence, prosperity, generosity, aid, kindness.