Death vs 10 of Swords

nisaba

I always saw the 10 of swords as a message that all hope is lost, that one needs to move out of a situation, leave a pattern. And this is also was death means...

They're similar, but different.

Ten Swords is hitting rock-bottom. We all hit rock-bottom sooner or later - some of us claw our way out of it, others of us never manage to.

Death is a sudden ending that you CANNOT reverse. It's not a fluffy, happy "I've graduated, I'm moving on to the next stage" - that is The World. Death is the ultimate full stop, the ultimate end of a sentence. Whatever you had is gone, and can never come back. (Something new might come, but then, it might not; but the old is over and done, never to return.)

The Ten Swords experience may lead to a Death experience, if the pit you've fallen into turns out to be too deep to climb out of; or the Ten Swords may lead to a Four Swords healing. But when Death comes along it is unmistakeable, and cannot lead to anything else. If you get Death for your career, for example, it does NOT indicate a promotion, more likely a sacking or a voluntary resignation. (That might lead to a better job, but the original job itself is over without any chance of a return). In a relationship, again, it indicates the energy of endings is around. It doesn't mean "taking the relationship to a new level" - again, that's The World, not Death. It means this one is either gone, or completely hollow, with none of the former feelings left or possible to regain. Sure, it leaves room for another love in your life when you are single, but it doesn't restore *this* one, whilst a Ten Swords card for relationships might just indicate going through a really, really bad patch.

See the difference?
 

Thirteen

With the Tower your perception changes, not the thing itself

Ok but this brings me confusion with the Tower, which I see as a card of inevitable changes....i am getting confused.
Often with the Tower there is change because you've had a sudden realization--kind of like when Dorothy finds out that Oz, the great and powerful, is just a little old man behind a curtain. This was true all along. What's changed is that now she knows it. As with the Death card, things can't ever be the same. But with the Tower card you can rebuild if you wish. The Wizard is just a man, but he can still help those who asked for his help. Just not as they expected.

If this was the Death card, our Wizard would be gone, vanished, and Dorothy, et al, would have to wait for some new magician to take his place in order to get what they were after. Death is a change that is very final. The Tower is a change that doesn't have to be final. What dies/vanishes is what you imagined and expected something to be. But the real thing isn't gone. So, can you make any use of it now that you know what it really is? That's the big question when it comes to the Tower.
 

wind

10 of swords

10 of swords can also be "spirit crushed under harsh or outdated ideas and judgements".
It is Sun in Gemini card and the spirit (Sun) can be overwhelmed by words or ideas (Gemini), even killed by them. You can bring a person down with your judgements and harsh words. Sun as unity of spirit can be totally dispersed and ruined by too many thoughts, judgments, analysis, mental games (Gemini), your own or received by others.

If we go by RWS, I find it significant that the swords are in the back - it is what we receive, what we are subjected to. Swords are stabbed into our receptive part, our back part, where we are very vulnerable. So the card can mean that we do not receive support for our ideas and thinking - and of course, this can be very much of our own making. We need to take the responsibility for our thinking process that brought us down...it is time to change the mind frame regardless from where the lesson is coming from, from others or from our own overanalyzing mind and shattered ideas (Gemini).

I just got this card for a person whose love for litterature is completely undervalued and they have always suffered because of ill and mediocre ideas of others. They are literally stumbled upon, misunderstood and mocked because they don't fit into the mental frame of their surroundings, and they constantly need to struggle against human mediocre mind. This brought them virtually to the verge of collapse - indeed they feel like that man, lying on the ground, with swords in his back. The mind and ideas of others killed their spirit.

In overall, it is a swords card, number 10 in swords, so it shows the end, or better to say, the need for new cycle of ideas, thoughts - what you thought it would be, is no more. Thinking, mind frame needs to change. And this can be many times very painful - but not necessarily so. You can receive this card to simply show that one of your ideas will not work or will change, you will simply change your mind.
 

Michellehihi

They're similar, but different.

Ten Swords is hitting rock-bottom. We all hit rock-bottom sooner or later - some of us claw our way out of it, others of us never manage to.

Death is a sudden ending that you CANNOT reverse. It's not a fluffy, happy "I've graduated, I'm moving on to the next stage" - that is The World. Death is the ultimate full stop, the ultimate end of a sentence. Whatever you had is gone, and can never come back. (Something new might come, but then, it might not; but the old is over and done, never to return.)

The Ten Swords experience may lead to a Death experience, if the pit you've fallen into turns out to be too deep to climb out of; or the Ten Swords may lead to a Four Swords healing. But when Death comes along it is unmistakeable, and cannot lead to anything else. If you get Death for your career, for example, it does NOT indicate a promotion, more likely a sacking or a voluntary resignation. (That might lead to a better job, but the original job itself is over without any chance of a return). In a relationship, again, it indicates the energy of endings is around. It doesn't mean "taking the relationship to a new level" - again, that's The World, not Death. It means this one is either gone, or completely hollow, with none of the former feelings left or possible to regain. Sure, it leaves room for another love in your life when you are single, but it doesn't restore *this* one, whilst a Ten Swords card for relationships might just indicate going through a really, really bad patch.

See the difference?
Thank you Nisaba for your answer. I like that you really replace the Death card to its original meaning. Because with new decks and all those new images (butterfly, etc) I was getting confused.
So the 10 of swords would be a very difficult experience, not more than that?
 

Sar

Leaving aside my standard caveat - no card's meaning is singular or set in stone - and also that context is important - I see 10 Swords as the absolute end and death as having potential for transformation - one is an end, and with very little in the way of positivity; the other can be an end but with a new beginning.

If I stuck with generic meanings, I'd much rather see Death than that 10.


Good point, but I kind of laughing a little bit of the 10/swords since ten swords is overkill (pun intendend).
 

Calayvie

10 of swords can also be "spirit crushed under harsh or outdated ideas and judgements".
It is Sun in Gemini card and the spirit (Sun) can be overwhelmed by words or ideas (Gemini), even killed by them. You can bring a person down with your judgements and harsh words. Sun as unity of spirit can be totally dispersed and ruined by too many thoughts, judgments, analysis, mental games (Gemini), your own or received by others.

This is very interesting. As a Gemini this is one of my cards and I can understand this card better and how I can learn from it, as I tend to be harsh with my words and overly critical. Something to work on.

I think there is hope at the end of the 10 of swords, I believe all cards have negative and positive aspects to them.
And when its one of your cards (for gemini) then you really have hope that your life won't be total ruin!! [emoji45]
Mine started out pretty bad but I hope I can give it a great ending! [emoji1]



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nisaba

I like that you really replace the Death card to its original meaning. Because with new decks and all those new images (butterfly, etc) I was getting confused.

We spend too much time being politically correct and trying not to scare people with the idea of finality, I think. Finality happens. And not everything that happens is good.

So the 10 of swords would be a very difficult experience, not more than that?

Never underestimate a difficult experience, either. Difficult experiences can be ... well ... difficult. Some of us never get over them.
 

Michellehihi

We spend too much time being politically correct and trying not to scare people with the idea of finality, I think. Finality happens. And not everything that happens is good.



Never underestimate a difficult experience, either. Difficult experiences can be ... well ... difficult. Some of us never get over them.

You are so right. Now I start to understand the card, really.
It reminds me of a french song here that everytime I hear it my heart hurts. It can translate as "do we ever heal from having lacked of love, do we survive to the memory of dark days. Even when we forgive, even when it's our turn to love, do we survive the lack of love"
I hear this song and remember my childhood.
 

HeatherRose

This is interesting, because the way you see the cards is contrary to what Gregory thinks, am I understanding correctly?

Yes, but please know that my learning of the cards many years ago was not "traditional", and may not always have the same meanings as many others see them. I use what has always been for me, even if it is different than what you may find in a book or even common beliefs.
I also want to say that it also depends on the deck one is using. Some decks have swords actually stuck into a person's back as they are lying on the ground. My deck has the swords above the person, and there is a light in the horizon, such as a sunset or a sunrise (as I like to see it), that's why I say the darkness before the dawn. And of course, it all depends on the actual reading itself and intuition coming through at the time of the reading.
 

Michellehihi

Yes, but please know that my learning of the cards many years ago was not "traditional", and may not always have the same meanings as many others see them. I use what has always been for me, even if it is different than what you may find in a book or even common beliefs.
I also want to say that it also depends on the deck one is using. Some decks have swords actually stuck into a person's back as they are lying on the ground. My deck has the swords above the person, and there is a light in the horizon, such as a sunset or a sunrise (as I like to see it), that's why I say the darkness before the dawn. And of course, it all depends on the actual reading itself and intuition coming through at the time of the reading.

Yes I also noticed that the swords are not always placed the same. I saw a deck where the swords were planted on his chest, this was really scary!