10 of Swords

cdabs

Omega

I was watching a thread on Natalee Holloway readings and revisited one of my readings on her/her case, as it was referenced by another forum member.
http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?p=1351608#post1351608

While reviewing my reading....one of the cards was The Ten Of Swords (Celtic Cross spread, Card #10).

I noticed...for the first time, what looks like an "Omega" ( Ω ) sign on the white sleeve of the body in The Ten of Swords. Anyone else see it at about where the elbow would be? http://learntarot.com/bigjpgs/swords10.jpg

This sign is a Greek Letter....which also means, "The End"...as in, "Alpha & Omega" (the beginning & the end).
 

Teheuti

cdabs said:
I noticed...for the first time, what looks like an "Omega" ( Ω ) sign on the white sleeve of the body in The Ten of Swords. Anyone else see it at about where the elbow would be? http://learntarot.com/bigjpgs/swords10.jpg

This sign is a Greek Letter....which also means, "The End"...as in, "Alpha & Omega" (the beginning & the end).
It's really only the left half of the letter that is Omega like, although I get what you mean. It probably wasn't intentional - the line is a quick, effective way to designate an elbow. This doesn't take away from a fortuitous happenstance that can be a personal reminder & confirmation of meaning. It's cool that there's an omega-like mark on the arm, but personally I don't think it was intended.

Another fortuitous visual accident can be seen in the penis-like upper thigh of the Knight of Cups. Adds to the meaning and makes me smile, but I don't think it was intentional.
 

Shaymus

This has always been, and still is, a very intriguing card for me. Funny how we see things in a certain way. I learned that the meaning of this card is that an ending has occurred, a cycle completed, but that the dawn is coming, as seen by the lightening of the sky. Somewhat reassuring.

However, because the esoteric title of the card is Lord of Ruin, I think I've been seeing it slightly incorrectly. I now believe that it's not the dawn we see approaching, but what we see in the distance is the fading lightness in the sky before the darkness falls, like a curtain descending on the scene saying "it's over, done, that's all folks, it's finished, the drama is over".

Now, I'm not saying that something else will not begin, because endings do lead to beginnings, but to me, the picture and the esoteric meaning say it's over, period.

Shaymus
 

HoneyBea

I have often wondered what the difference between Death and the 10 of Swords was, but now I feel that the Death card tells us that something has already finished, it is dead - whereas the 10 is a card that tells us something is coming to its end - there's the difference *lol* Swords deal with the intellect, clarity of thought etc. so what this card seems to suggest is that perhaps the way we think about something is now out moded, out of date, not viable any more etc.

As mentioned in another post the esoteric name is The Lord of Ruin and it certainly does seem to reflect this idea - however this 10 card seems to me to be in a much better position than the card before it - the 9 shows how one can get all wrapped up in the anxiety of the mind, but the 10 seems to say the worst is really over and its time to heal yourself. As with all upsets there is pain, and this card clearly shows that pain, being stabbed in the back by careless words or even strong criticism can do that for you.

What is interesting in this card is if you look closely at the man's hand in the foreground he appears to be giving the sign of the benediction or blessing, and this does seem to link him to Christ and more so the the forgiveness that Christ would have bestowed on those who have hurt him - this seems to suggest here that the road to healing is being able to forgive, whether that forgiveness is of yourself or of someone else. - So here we arrive again back at thought patterns and how perhaps in order to heal, one needs to give up one negative way of thinking and replace it with a more positive outlook.

The sky in this card (my deck is the Radiant Rider Waite) is black and according to the Book Pictures of the Heart can be associated with emptiness, ignorance or lack of insight. Grey clouds hang just above the lower sky and grey is a colour that is in between black and white - maybe suggesting here that there is an opportunity to balance opposites and perhaps even integrate them. Notice how the horizon is yellow the colour of intellect/mind maybe indicating the ability to use one's mind again in a more positive way. Do you notice the purple mountains in the background? the mountains themselves may represent here the boundaries of the mind and purple has always been a colour associated with wisdom, so this may say that with wisdom these boundaries can be overcome.

Notice how the man lays on the brown earth - there is his connection to the practicalities of everyday life and this land he lies on is at the edge of a still lake- water represents more often than not emotions, this lake is still, and it could suggest here no movement in one's emotions.

Also notice how the Swords are placed - they penetrate his back along the spine, which alludes I think to the 7 chakras, or the kundalini, therefore suggesting a block in this energy but also may well indicate here that one needs to give up old mental ideas in order to allow the bringing together of higher energies.

I think this card's overall message is recognising when something is done and its time to move on, whether that be a thought pattern (related to the swords element) or something else like a relationship, career - this card shows us through its symbolism that although it may seem dark right at the moment, because of the mental restrictions we may have placed upon ourself, we can with a new perspective create something fresh for ourselves.

It is important to understand with this card that when something ends, something new is waiting to begin. So we reduce 10 to 1+0=1 and we arrive again at the potential of the Ace (new beginnings) and the Major Arcana Card The Magician, who says to you "You have the power to create - you just have to recognise the power within."

So although this 10 Swords does look like a sorrowful card, what it really is, is a card of opportunity - the opportunity to move on and fulfill one's life instead of stagnating in a position that does nothing for you except pin you down ;)
 

Shaymus

HoneyBea said:
I think this card's overall message is recognising when something is done and its time to move on, whether that be a thought pattern (related to the swords element) or something else like a relationship, career - this card shows us through its symbolism that although it may seem dark right at the moment, because of the mental restrictions we may have placed upon ourself, we can with a new perspective create something fresh for ourselves.

To me, that is the explanation of the Death card. The esoteric function of the Death card is movement, that something ends for something else to grow or happen.

You gave a very concise description of the 10 of swords, with the symbolism in it (blessing of the hand, the swords in the back, etc) that had been what I've understood from others over the years. But still, I believe that the meaning (not interpretation) of the card is that, whatever the spread or issue the cards are talking about, is over. The blessing could be that, thank goodness, it's over.

Great discussion, by the way.
Shaymus
 

Alta

HoneyBea, I also got a lot from your card description and thoughts.

Agree that this card is not the minor's equivalent of Death, though it could be seen as a minor sub-part of Death. As the Lord of Ruin title suggests, this is the moment when it is all over and you recognize that fact. Walking out onto the street after being fired, seeing your old love in the arms of a new one, finally coming face to face with that cancer diagnosis. Whatever you were doing is over, done, ain't going back. But you are still in the midst of it. Facing the self-loathing and despair of having to find a new job, dealing internally with rejection of one you thought was your soulmate, having to face cancer treatments.

It isn't finished, but its over, if you see what I mean.
 

HoneyBea

Marion said:
HoneyBea, I also got a lot from your card description and thoughts.

Agree that this card is not the minor's equivalent of Death, though it could be seen as a minor sub-part of Death. As the Lord of Ruin title suggests, this is the moment when it is all over and you recognize that fact. Walking out onto the street after being fired, seeing your old love in the arms of a new one, finally coming face to face with that cancer diagnosis. Whatever you were doing is over, done, ain't going back. But you are still in the midst of it. Facing the self-loathing and despair of having to find a new job, dealing internally with rejection of one you thought was your soulmate, having to face cancer treatments.

It isn't finished, but its over, if you see what I mean.

Yes I see what you mean, but I also feel that the "isn't finished" part is the opportunity angle that this card talks about - if you can just realise that this thing whatever it is, is over than you give yourself the opportunity to move into a new perspective and a new beginning. The sign of the benediction is really saying when there is another element involved the best way to get over it and allow it to go is to forgive whoever or whatever has caused it - the the case of a romance the other person, in the case of cancer your own body etc. This to me is fundamentally a card and suit about mental activity, so whether the thing ending is a romance, job or even facing cancer, its about changing the way you perceive what has/is happening in order to move on/begin again.

So all this really was a long way of saying that the message it seems to be delivering is, it is finished and it is over, if you heed the card's advice and change those thought patterns, you can look at everything in a different light, so the finishing it become the new beginning :)

Does any of that make sense or is 10 minutes in my brain a muddling experience *lol*
 

Teheuti

To me, and as we've seen here, each of the cards is so rich that a single meaning can't be the sum total of any card - including this one. I always go with how the querent sees the card AT THE MOMENT. Some never see the hand of benediction, while others focus on it right away. Some are very frightened by the card because they think it means the absolute end of something they don't want to let go of or they think it will hurt. However, if I ask them to lay down on the floor in the exact position of the figure on the RWS card, something else always happens. Usually, tho' not always, there's a feeling of relief and surrender. Some people find it very much like the "Deadman's Pose" at the end of a strenuous yoga session - from which you don't want to move because it feels so-o-o good. Others find that the sensation is like accupuncture, or paralysis. . . .

Mary
 

HoneyBea

Teheuti said:
To me, and as we've seen here, each of the cards is so rich that a single meaning can't be the sum total of any card - including this one.
Mary

I totally agree with you Mary, and how it is interpreted would absoultely depend on the question, spread and positional definition - however my comments on this card are based on the symbolism of Waite/Pixi Smith, and are not based solely on how I may or may not interpret this card when reading for someone else.

For me to understand what the creators of this deck are trying to say is, and again I say for me personally, the first step into gaining a greater understanding of this card - so my comments are based on my understanding of the symbolism and not how I would conduct a reading.

I hope that explains they way I am thinking *lol* :)
 

Teheuti

ros said:
Where is the man in this card laying?
Just wondering what the blue in this card is...
land or water?
If it is water that would bring emotions into this
card. I was always thinking he was on land, and
now maybe a beach. (don't know)
I'd say he's by a body of water with hills, blue in the distance. He appears to be on land - though not necessarily a beach. I usually think of it as a lake because there's no movement indicated in the water - the water itself looks placid or even lifeless.

The swords cards are equated with very strong, mostly disturbing emotions. Most people respond to the difficult swords cards emotionally - they can't help it. I did a whole Tarot & Emotions research project in part precisely because of the strong emotions evoked by the Swords.

Here are the words picked most often for the Ten of Swords:
hopeless (x15)
overwhelmed (x12)
despair (x11)
exhausted (x5)
hatred (x5)
pity (x3)
apathetic (x2)
fear (x2)

HoneyBea said:
For me to understand what the creators of this deck are trying to say is, and again I say for me personally, the first step into gaining a greater understanding of this card - so my comments are based on my understanding of the symbolism and not how I would conduct a reading.

Waite says little about this card:
"A prostrate figure, pierced by all the swords belonging to the card. Divinatory Meanings: Whatsoever is intimated by the design; also pain, affliction, tears, sadness, desolation. It is not especially a card of violent death."

And, in his additional meanings: imprisonment; treason on the part of friends [i.e., 'stabbed in the back'].

Waite was very specific in his use of words. The key in his description seems to be "prostrate," which means "to cast (oneself) face down on the ground in humility, submission, or adoration [and] to overthrow, overcome, or reduce to helplessness."

Also, *pierce* = to penetrate or cut through - "by all the swords" = mind, intellect. This suggests a kind of ultimate penetration [that is also a kind of deadend].

And his main emotion: *desolation* = Random House Dict: "The desolate person is deprived of human consolation, relationships, or presence."

I have a copy of PKT that once belonged to a priest. In it,he points to Rev. 19:15: "And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God." [The poor guy looks like he's the grapes that were pressed!]

This priest also points to Waite's book _The Holy Kabbalah_, p. 289: "The Flaming Sword which turned every way signifies angels set over the chastisement of man in this world." This is in a section on the Fall of Man and the Legend of the Deluge (Flood) in which Waite talks about both Eve and Noah having pressed grapes into wine. "The fact that Noah pressed the grapes—as Eve is said also to have done—partook of the juice and so became drunken, is affirmed to contain a mystery of wisdom. . . . Noah . . . having set himself to fathom that sin which had caused the fall of the first man. . . . he raised a corner of the veil concerning that breach of the world which outght always to remain secret (p. 294-295)." Waite then refers to the dangers of partial knowledge. From this we might deduce that the man on the shore is one of the damned humans not saved by Noah, following the Deluge. Could Waite have been referring to this? Damned right - it would be just like him!

In the Grail & Masonic Mysteries that Waite used when devising the Minor Arcana, this card refers specifically to the death of the Master Builder (murdered by his brethern through treason) as well that of the many knights who perished on the Quest. In the Welsh Perceval, it is the 'Sword which broke and was rejoined, [and] in the stress of the last trial, was shattered beyond recovery."

Waite specifically tells us in PKT that the Knight of Swords is Galahad (who was girded with the Sword of David). He explains how the "Quest of Galahad" tells how "the Warden of the Mysteries together with the Holy Things [the four suits/Grail Hallows], was removed once and for all . . . [because] the world was not worthy." and "The death pictured in the Mysteries is therefore in no sense physical, but is mystical, like the resurrection which follows it." Waite, _The Hidden Church of the Holy Grail_. Remember that in PKT, he said: "It is not especially a card of violent death."

This is the suit of Swords taken to an extreme - the nth degree. Yet in reaching its ultimate conclusion, nothing further can be done in that direction through either thought or aspiration, and so there's room for a new possibility to emerge [the rising of the black clouds revealing yellow light] - though it has to come from a new and different place.

Mary