Editor’s Note: If you want to experiment with tarot cards and don’t have any, we provide a free tarot spread generator using the Celtic Wings spread, which is based on the traditional Celtic Cross spread. This article explains how to use the spread. You can visit Sarah’s website here. –efc
By Sarah Taylor
Three weeks ago, we looked at the Nines in the Rider-Waite Smith Tarot deck. These marked a process of culminating, where “we are close to reaching some point of expression, although it is still currently taking shape. Hence culminating rather than culmination: the idea is not yet fully developed.”
The Tens bring this idea to a point of handing over — where one phase or state makes way for another. This marks the completion of the numerical cards in the minor arcana — and it has been some journey! From the divine potential held in the Aces, we have seen the expression of each suit manifest in our day-to-day lives, bringing up sensations, feelings, thoughts and experiences that are archetypal in nature — we can relate to them deeply and immediately.
Sequentially, there are the four court cards to follow in each suit (Page, Knight, Queen, King), although they stand apart from the pips (Ace through Ten) in many respects. Symbolically, the journey never ends. This is because tarot reflects the cyclical nature of our lives. Cards are revisited and patterns are woven and rewoven, just as we revisit, weave and interweave our own experiences.
And so on to the Tens…
Ten of Wands
The Ten of Wands — also known as “oppression” — depicts a man labouring under the weight of his load of ten wands. Not only do they seem heavy, but unwieldy: it’s all he can do to keep them in his grip, while they fan out before him, blocking his view of what lies ahead of him. A demanding bunch of wands indeed. However, although he has his work cut out for him, there is the implicit presence of choice. He is choosing to carry them; no one is behind him, forcing or cajoling him. There must be something that he gains from this, a purpose to his actions.