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 tells you how to use the spread. You can visit Sarah’s website here. –efc
By Sarah Taylor
This morning, I asked my three-and-a-half year old son to pick a card for me for our weekend reading. I shuffled the cards, and while I was doing so a card flipped from the pack. The Ten of Swords. I usually take a card that jumps out like that seriously and include it in a reading; so I counted it as a lucky break that I wasn’t the one doing the picking this time, put it back, shuffled some more, and fanned the deck out in front of him.
Of course, he picked the Ten of Swords again. He looked at it, looked up at me, face beaming, declared, “I love it!” and promptly ran off — probably to cause more mischief in the laundry.
And that’s exactly what I’m going to do too, dear reader. Yes, today I’m going to run off (metaphorically speaking, of course), and leave you clutching the card to see what you make of it.
While I feel a little like I’m jumping out of the cockpit mid-flight, I’m rather relishing the idea of seeing what happens. The card seems a suitably ghoulish one for Halloween, which feels like we’re off to a pretty good start.
So, if you feel inspired to put fingers to keyboard, I would love to hear your thoughts about the Ten of Swords. And please know: all thoughts are welcome. There are no excluded thoughts. There are no wrong answers, either. Nothing is “stupid”. In the words of Max Ehrmann in his beautiful poem Desiderata: “You are a child of the universe, / no less than the trees and the stars; / you have a right to be here.”
To help you get started, here are some questions you might ponder:
- What do you see when you look at the card? What stands out for you?
- How does it make you feel?
- Does that feeling change when you step back and observe it from a distance?
- If you do look the meaning up elsewhere, what are your reactions to what you read? Do you agree? Do you disagree? Why?
- Finally, does the Ten of Swords have any personal meaning for you right now, either in your own life or in the events in the wider world?
And now it’s over to you …
It would appear that the sword plunged deepest is into his heart.
The river flows in light, a horizon easily seen and the hills beyond it the same blue as our river.
It is the sky overhead that is dark; so it is night, the time when we rest anticipating renewal – but closer to earth than that darkness is bright light, shadows or clouds separate the light from the dark and they are in alignment with the handles of the swords – the handles are all above in the dark, the blades are all in the light. Surely he is not pinned here by his own hand, but he is pinned nonetheless.
With the water being in the light, I would think that a journey awaits when the power within is released and all that has pinned him down is able to do so no longer.
It is his spiritual energy that will free him – in this moment whether he is face up or face down, dead or alive does not matter.
He does indeed await inevitable transcendence.
That’s a few “awords” from me.
xo
Hi Sarah,
I read that somewhere in a book, it may be here in my house. Will look and if I do find it, will email you which book.
Thanks for your writing. It’s fantastic.
drexcel
The fingers?? It appears to me they say “UP YOURS”. Defiance, & strength of character even after such a traumatic experiance.
This card says to me 2 very simple statements. The first is that they have fallen victim to a crime of passion, indicated by so many swords. Placed to cause pain & to paralyse, yet not inflict death. The 2nd statement of this card to me is, “What don’t kill me, only makes me stronger.” The swords symbolise strength, & here we have 10.
Hela,
I *love* what your friend Jeanne has to say about the card. Why, I do believe my chakras responded by opening to the “expansive consciousness” when I read your comment.
š
Thanks for that!
My dear friend and Numerologist Jeanne describes this card as such:
“The successful opening of the energy centers (seven chakras plus three of super-consciousness), penetrating unknown mysteries. Inner Awareness has been achieved.”
I like this, it reduces my fear of death and dying and increases my awareness of an expansive consciousness that cannot be destroyed or ruined.
Sarah,
Many thanks for your invitation to explore. I haven’t quite gotten into reading Tarot in depth yet so it was an interesting venture and has stayed with me all since yesterday, all because you opened the floor.
Hope your little guy didn’t do tooooo much messing in the laundry! Oh and I really loved his reaction to picking the card. A little person’s take on life is such fun, isn’t it?
and the figure’s face is turned toward the dawn on the horizon; not away from it or up into the black or down into the ground… but toward the new light, there to see if one’s eyes are open. which might not be the case given what has just been endured.
one may have to feel those “realtime vibrations” as yeti phrased it before one can make the effort to open the eyes, and that will take presence in one’s senses, as fe notes. no easy feat, with that many thought/fear swords in the back.
it’ll be a different day from the one before, for sure; different direction.
All of the responses I’ve read here today have been phenomenal, and it just proves that each of us has the capacity to read a tarot card if we’re willing to go with it and see what happens.
Thank you, all of you!
— S
It reminds me of a dream I had the other night.
I was walking around in a gooey-feeling cave feeling sorry for myself and asking the Universe (without really expecting an answer) “Why does it have to be so hard? How long will I have to stay stuck in this?”
A voice said, “Until you enjoy it”.
Thank you, Fe and Sarah. I will try to remember what you said on my next 10 of Swords day!
..stream of conciousness may be easier for me,.. Swords, thoughts.. matter and mind bound in abyssal infinity.. the longer it runs, the further it gets.. ‘Useful’ for sure, to a point, treacherously tedious and infinitely distracting to the seeker of ‘truth’..
There comes a ‘point’ when you realize thought as an infinite undulating current, and no matter how much (quantifiable) you think.. there’s always MORE to think!..
“Comes a time, when the blind man takes your hand,.. says “don’t you see? gotta make it somehow, all the dreams you still believe, don’t give it up, you’ve got an empty cup,.. only Love can fill”..- Grateful Dead (Not exactly sure how that quote relates.. but I still like it!)
Love,
J
It’s always darkest before the dawn.
To answer your questions literally Sarah, here’s what I see: A phalanx of swords, piercing flesh, standing to attention. The handles of the swords look like soldiers to me, standing atop their long blades of death, their job seemingly done. The tips of the swords, having cut and penetrated the flesh to the extent that they can still rest there and firmly remain in an upright position. The swords look like they run the length of the backbone of the body lying prone on the ground. The body looks dead but I see an outstretched hand with perhaps its fingers crossed? I see a huge cavernous blackness of the upper sky but then become drawn downwards a bright, yellow horizon.
How I feel about this card is: I have an initial overwhelming and powerful sense of death – the swords have done their job and stand erect, defiant, their overkill pervading the air, taking away my breath and perhaps I could succumb to that energy alone. But then, my mood and reaction changes and the bright, yellow horizon pulls me towards it, and I sense a new chapter dawning, that even in the midst of death a resurrection of sorts is occurring. There is hope also in the crossed fingers and that all is not over nor lost. Maybe the crossing of the fingers puts a hex on death. Death has not won but instead hope is the stronger force and that brightens and changes the scenario.
So after initially recoiling from the scene of a painful and violent death, I am pulled into a band of light at the centre and core of the drawing. It feels like a portal, a way out to a new beginning. My sense is that no matter what, hope does spring eternal and the depth of that energy can colour any dire situation, even death, and instead ushers in new life.
My general concept in reading symbols is that if the human figure is in some way animated, it’s a living process. The Death card is an example — we have a figure very much alive and riding a horse; or in the language of Crowley and Harris, an illustration of DNA. The Grateful Dead’s Happy Jack is alive and rockin’ out; the skull with the lightening bolt (‘steal your face’) shows sighs of life in the form of the lightning running through the skull cavity.
So, as for this figure. Looking for signs of life, I noticed the hand mudra. Very clever, and a good sign within the card; the ‘meaning’ of a card is often delineated in a minor symbol rather than the main image. The tarot is a mind game, and it managed to survive the crusades – not bad. But in this image, something is definitely immobilized, in a passive mode. There is a culmination implied.
One of the biases of the tarot is that for the most part, the suits do not end well. Maybe Christine DeLorey could comment here. In the 10 of Swords, we have the journey of the mind ending in betrayal, defeat and impasse — but with that little hand mudra, at peace and ready to reincarnate. The Wands end up in burden.
The Pentacles end pretty well, leading to the Kabala – the Tree of Life. The Cups end with contentment and maybe a bit of complacency.
So…where do we go from the 10 of Swords? The only way out is through. The querrant is still alive, anyway. That’s the important thing.
At first the card looked very gloomy but then I saw the light and what looks like being on the banks of a body of water. I decided that it was about the death of the body and transformation from the physical into the state of “being.” Moving from the dark and crossing over into the light. It could also represent someone who is on the cusp of enlightenment – after going through something very tortuous.
drexcel, I’m wondering if this is the description you’re referring to – from learntarot.com:
“This card can also show when you’re in victim mentality. You’re certain that the whole world is picking on you just to make your life difficult. I picture the man lifting his head and saying, “You think you’ve got it bad…a cut on the finger. I’ve got ten swords in my back…count ’em – ten!” Then he drops his head back down with a sigh.”
This interpretation appeals to me. It’s not definitive, but the image it calls up in my mind is compelling, and humorous. And the Ten of Swords can often seem to lack a certain humour at first glance.
For me, it’s the end of a (literally) torturous journey with the promise of something new approaching.
No, if you look closely to his hand, his fingers are in a finger position called a Mudra. And a Mudra is done to balance or give you energy. In this case he looks like he’s holding the “Pran Mudra” which is basically reinforces your life force, your pranic life force. Anyway, that’s my take on it.
I’ve always thought of this as the drama queen card.
Read somewhere once ” If you think that’s bad, look at me, I’ve got 10 swords in my back” .
drexcel
Here’s a question: do you think the figure is dead, or alive?
All your contributions are great – thank you!
prickle, one thing stood out for me when I read your comment. If the sun rises for everyone else, it also rises for you. Even if the figure is pinned down in the most physically horrendous way, the swords have done him a favour: he doesn’t need to move much to see the sky clearing.
I think this card represents the Dark Night of the Soul, one must experience the death of all that one believed to be true in order to rise from the past and live a new “dawn”, a new reality that speaks of your truth, your essence and purpose in this life.
Can be someone in an acupuncture treatment where the crusty habits they’ve held in their spine for years begin to dissolve. A pernicious wind invasion. It’s the sword suit so the glitch is all in your head. Sparkles in our imaginariums wreak havoc on life and bodies in space. Maybe the sword suit wouldn’t be so wrapped up in conflict if we all practiced internal observation and root building. A wrong idea has run its course and it’s obvious it isn’t going to work. The sword suit shows the unstable nature of ideas and suggests what in qigong is known as keeping Shen raised. In the 6 you have science, your maps serve a useful function, your spirits are raised and qi is flowing in its proper channels. From the 6 cruelty, defeat, interference, and truce are all illuminated by the light of the crown. You’re checking your observations with experiments. Below the 6 it’s all noise where the light of the crown is blocked. Shen has its residence in the forebrain so it’s keeping your light on. When that light gets dim Xin, emotional mind residing in the heart is driving blind and thoughts are bound and gagged in their own private dramas that all lead to ruin. This card is what happens when you mistake the symbol for the thing it represents, when your ideas about a relationship eclipse the realtime vibrations of the being in your presence. The corpse in this case will dissolve in the wind. No blame.
prickle:
Overkill is quite apt. Usually, for me, this ten is about being just so strung out in your head that nothing makes sense anymore, and there’s a paralysis. The best thing out of that is to reclaim your body, the day, your senses. Anything to get you out of your head.
Oh, it’s my card! It’s overkill – there I lie, pinned down by everything available to pin me, bleeding my life out on the ground while the sun rises for everyone else.
That’s great, KathyC.
What did you see/feel that helped you come to that interpretation?
Although I respect and accept as a thought provoker, Eric’s interpretation, I have a more hopeful take on the 10 of swords.
I see this as a death or transformation of outmoded or unneeded, conditioned responses or even ideas, to allow growth of better fitting, more useful purpose.
A betrayal of fear, acceptance of love and light, as Eric suggests.
“We’ve done all we can do- it’s time to move along and look toward tomorrow.”
My first tarotspread card reading thru Eric’s site had this very card as the first one… a week ago.
I’ve been getting this card very frequently in the last few years, a time where I have had a lot of different kinds of losses, one after the other. I always tend to view it as a bit of a warning that I should not let worries and fear make a difficult situation any harder than it really needs to be. I agree with Eric’s idea about the card representing the consequence of fear…the number of swords on the card always seems to be a bit of “overkill” for the figure on the card as well.
I think of acupuncture needles in my aching back, easing me out and de-stressing. Which i probably need.
I view this card as impasse in an emotional relationship; the fear of betrayal; the logical conclusion of overthinking a situation.
Depending on the circumstances, it can represent actual betrayal, but really, it’s the consequence of fear, most of the time. Check Gerd Zeigler’s “Tarot: Mirror of Your Relationships” for the most humane view of this card — excellent book, great writer with a background in Gestalt process and esoteric studies (rare enough to find).