Tarot · Swords
Ten of Swords
- end point
- closure
- first light
The picture
A man lies by the water with ten swords in his back; the sky is black, but light is breaking on the horizon and the water is calm.
The meaning
The picture is drastic; the reading is not. The tradition reads the Ten of Swords as an end point: something is over, for good, and it goes no lower. That is exactly where the relief lies, for on the horizon the light is already breaking. Readers see in it the end of a struggle, after which you can get up again.
Reversed
Reversed, it is read as a slow recovery and getting up after a low point.
In love
In love it is read as a clear end to an old story, and freedom for something new.
At work
At work it stands for the end of a project, after which a fresh start becomes possible.
As your card of the day
Something that has dragged on can be closed today. On the horizon it is already getting light.
The Ten of Swords stands for a full stop. What is over can no longer hold you.
Swords belong to air. Readers see in them thought, decisions and plain words, the uncomfortable ones included.
Picture: Pamela Colman Smith, Rider-Waite-Smith tarot, 1909, public domain (Wikimedia Commons).