Card for the Moment: 3 of Swords, Binah in Yetzirah, “Sorrow.” Sorrow, profound mental melancholy engendering either depression or wisdom, Secrecy, perversion. Something has you deeply troubled (or it will). It pops into your mind with every unguarded moment. It is not only painful but exhausting as well. It’s the kind of thing you would sell your soul to stop. You don’t really sleep at night and food doesn’t taste good. The 4 of Swords will eventually appear and give you some relief but you can’t see that for now. For now it is like an open wound on your life.

Swords is the suit of the mind. It represents the intellectual life. This “sorrow” is not the emotional heartbreak a lost love; it is the Chinese water torture of a seemingly insolvable problem and the beliefs surrounding it.

So how do we survive the 3 of Swords? I can only speak from my own experience and observation:

1. Break up your routine. This little piece of creative destruction can work wonders in itself.
2. Stop emoting and start thinking with eye toward finding a solution.
3. Be patient. Many difficult problems resolve themselves as they are fundamentally unstable situations.
4. If you have done all you can do and thought all you can think, give yourself permission to release the problem. You acknowledge the problem but don’t give it the power to control your time.
5. Talk it out with someone you trust.

As always, in extreme cases of mental anguish seek the help of a medical professional. Also, there are many coping resources online including the Suicide Hotline 988.