Heart in tarot
The heart has been the seat of feeling since antiquity, and the stylised heart shape became the emblem of love in late medieval European art; devotion to the Sacred Heart later gave it a religious meaning too. Smith uses it twice. The Three of Swords shows a bare red heart pierced by three blades under rain, one of the most direct images in the deck, often compared with the sorrowing heart of the Virgin pierced by swords. The Empress rests against a heart-shaped shield marked with the sign of Venus. Readers take the heart as love and emotional truth, wounded or protected.
Cards that show heart
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The Empress
The Empress: The Venus shield
A grey heart-shaped shield rests against her seat, marked with the symbol of Venus. It names her as a figure of love and beauty, and makes a heart, rather than a coat of arms, her emblem of authority.
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Three of Swords
Three of Swords: The red heart
A plain, bright red heart floats at the centre of the card, the only warm colour on it. It stands for feeling, love and the inner life, and its size makes the hurt the whole subject of the picture.