Tarot Part 1

The image is grisly: a man, lying face down, with ten swords sticking out of his back. The landscape is desolate; a black dog growls at the body. The only light comes from a clearing sky.

The Ten of Swords is a scary card to look at! How can any interpretation, other than doom, betrayal, and death be suggested? When I was learning Tarot—by drawing a card every day and keeping a journal—the Ten would show up all the time. Anxiously, I waited to see what terrible things might befall me. This time was a tremendous lesson for me in how the Tarot actually works, and though it was nerve-wracking to deal with this card so often, I learned not to fear it and instead embrace its message—that sometimes letting go of the old is the best path to personal growth and new opportunities.

Okay—I’m not going to shine you on here. This card can mean that death will be showing up in your life. Not literal death probably, but the death of your ego, a way of thinking, or a whole batch of beliefs and mental concepts (the Swords relate to the mind). In my case, I was going through a challenging time of life, and I had started studying Tarot to help myself through it. Everything I thought I knew as “true” was being blown up. It was a tough time. But what I learned was that the Ten is the final push, the death throes, and beyond it lies a new beginning. That’s what the image of the clear horizon on the card is all about. The Ten is the end of the cycle, leading back to the Ace. This card was saying—your pain will end soon if you let go and allow a new set of beliefs to emerge.

Was this easy? Heck no! But everyone will have times in their life when they need to let the old fall away so that something new can be born. The more we resist this, the harder it will be. The Ten is asking us to let go, to let something die so we can rise again.

Another theme of this card is betrayal. It may mean that literal betrayal is afoot—but in my case and with most of my clients, it suggests self-betrayal, which can lead to a whole lot of outer turmoil. During the time I was drawing the Ten frequently, I was also in a strange living situation with an old friend. I was broke and working different jobs for other friends. Fear was guiding my life.