This card was pulled by a woman working on her sexuality after her husband had died some years ago and she was now with a new partner - the three of wands shows three people in a relationship and a boat out at sea that is keeping the focus off the present moment. When the psyche persists in holding onto something or someone it means that the trauma or the important function that that person held within their inner world has not been fully healed, we may even re-create similar situations and relationships in an unconscious attempt to re-experience the original event so that we may resolve it. Holding onto someone from the past means that the person still holds some essential meaning for us, carries the image that connects us to some essential aspect of our own being that we were then, that they mirrored back to us.  When that is unearthed, and the energy held there made free again, we integrate within our psyche and can start to move forward.