The pierced heart
Three swords pierce a heart under rain on the Three of Swords. Waite found it too simple and obvious to explain; its model is the sorrowing Mary of Christian art.
In the tradition
In Luke’s Gospel, Simeon tells Mary that "a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also". Catholic art turned the line into the Mater Dolorosa, Mary with one or seven swords in her heart.
The Sola Busca deck of about 1490 has a heart pierced by swords, and Pamela Colman Smith is thought to have seen photographs of it in London.
Sources
- A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910). Waite's own guide to the deck he designed with Pamela Colman Smith, with each card's divinatory meanings.
- Various, The Bible (King James Version 1611; the Latin Vulgate, 4th century). The source of much of the Temple, Eden and Revelation imagery in the Rider-Waite-Smith deck.
Updated October 9, 2026.
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