ANCIENT EGYPTIAN STUDY GROUP - 10 Swords

rwcarter

Tomb robbers search the burial chamber for gold and precious jewels. The robbers represent taking advantage and something or someone that is stealing one's ideas, energy, emotions or vitality. They also suggest the villainous portions of oneself and represent taking what one wants regardless of the cost to others.

The mummy is being desecrated. This desecration represents the destruction of the Ba, the person's soul that lived in the tomb with the body. While the Ba lived in the tomb, the Akh (the person's spirit) lived in the otherworld. When the body is destroyed, the Ba is left homeless and both the Ba and the Akh would die the "second death." To avoid this fate, the Ba was provided with a statue of the deceased that it could inhabit if something happened to the body. That statue is seen in the lower left of the card.

The dead body represents things like ideas, experiences, biases or attitudes that one wants to bury or put behind oneself. The robbers represent someone or something that won't let that happen.

Death is a transition or change or an awakening of the subconscious mind. The tomb robbers suggest an interruption of or interference with these processes.

The mummy's desecration suggests that what one had thought was preserved or unchangeable actually wasn't. Something one thought was dead and buried is being brought back to life by others.

The cow on the left side of the card represents Hathor who would greet the soul at the entrance to the Underworld. Those who asked for her aid using the correct ritual phrases would be carried on their way upon her back.

The ship at the top of the card represents the vessel that transports the soul to the Underworld.

The urn is associated with the physical body or the soul. Broken, it suggests issues with the body or the soul.

The imagery in the card brings to mind the phrase "cutting the ties that bind" which means to extract oneself from a situation.

Rodney