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The Ten of Swords, like the Death (XIII), symbolizes the end and the departure, the great layoffs. Unlike the Death card, which marks the natural end, the Ten of Swords is an arbitrary, possibly violent death, and sometimes an early ending. Although this experience is often associated with severe life experiences, it is not necessary. The mass of swords symbolizes the unified power of the mind, which makes a violent end to something. This makes it vital for us to end up with very valuable experiences, or to end up with unpleasant situations, to leave us with bad habits, or to end a depressing life cycle. In all cases it means painful farewell. Whether we are experiencing overwhelming feelings or ultimately being relieved as a surgical intervention, it can only be decided on the basis of the card's environment. Whether the displayed end is necessary or incorrect, absurd or hasty, is revealed from the other cards.

TEN OF SWORDS : RUIN

These cards are attributed to Malkuth. Here is the end of all energy; it is away from the “formative world” altogether, where things are elastic. There is now no planetary attribution to consider. So far as the Sephira is concerned, it is right down in the world of Assiah. By the mere fact of having devised four elements, the current has derogated from the original perfection. The Tens are a warning; see whither it leads-to take the first wrong step!

The Ten of Swords is called Ruin. It teaches the lesson which statesmen should have learned, and have not; that if one goes on fighting long enough, all ends in destruction.

Yet this card is not entirely without hope. The Solar influence rules; ruin can never be complete, because disaster is a sthenic disease. As soon as things are bad enough, one begins to build up again. When all the Governments have smashed each other, there still remains the peasant. At the end of Candide’s misadventures, he could still cultivate his garden.

The number Ten, Malkuth, as always, represents the culmination of the unmitigated energy of the idea. It shows reason run mad, ramshackle riot of soulless mechanism; it represents the logic of lunatics and (for the most part) of philosophers. It is reason divorced from reality.

The card is also ruled by the Sun in Gemini, but the mercurial airy quality of the Sign serves to disperse his rays; this card shows the disruption and disorder of harmonious and stable energy.

The hilts of the Swords occupy the positions of the Sephiroth, but the points One to Five and Seven to Nine touch and shatter the central Sword (six) which represents the Sun, the Heart, the child of Chokmah and Binah. The tenth Sword is also in splinters. It is the ruin of the Intellect, and even of all mental and moral qualities.

In the Yi King, Sol in Gemini is the virtue of the 43rd Hexagram, Kwai, the Watery modification of the Phallus; also, by the interlacing interpretation, the harmony of these two same Trigrams.

The signification is perfectly harmonious with that of the Ten of Swords It represents the damping down of the Creative impulse, weakness, corruption, or mirage affecting that principle itself. But, viewing the Hexagram as a weapon or method of procedure, it counsels the ruler to purge the state of unworthy officers. Curiously, the invention of written characters to replace knotted strings is ascribed among Chinese scholars to the use of this hexagram by the sages. Gemini is ruled by Thoth; 10 is the key of the Naples Arrangement; and Apollo (Sol) is the patron of literature and the arts: so his suggestion might appear at least no less suitable to the Qabalistic correspondences than to their double emphasis on Water and the Sun.

Apart from this, however, the parallelism is complete.

THE TEN OF SWORDS - RUIN

Astrology: Sun in the 3. decan of Gemini Tree of Life: Malkuth through Air

With the Ten of Swords, the development of human intellect has consequently reached its last step - from the birth of intellect within the Ace to complete ruin within the grounds of the Ten. 

The card teaches the lesson that endless fighting ends with destruction, endless analysis with the copmplete loss of hope and belief. It forces the lesson of the Nine of Swords to its inevitable conclusion. But with the Sun above it, it does not lack every hope. It will silently return to its origin again, to the first spark of mind in the Ace, to start all over again. The big hope in here is that the lessons from the journey absolved won't get forgotten. 

By the way, every Ten in the Minor Arcana stands for the end of a process, for the need to restart or at least variate, only the Ten of Swords have an amazingly crude way to put it into words - that's just the way they are.

Drive: Transformation 

Light: Rebirth, realization, the end of a cycle, wisdom through pain and loss 

Shadow: Ruin, loss, destruction, separation, pain, catastrophe

THE TENTH OF SWORDS - Failure - Mars - Saturn - Violent End

Keywords: Sun and Moon in Gemini, fear of insanity, broken heart, fear of the destructive energy of accumulated anger, negative thinking

Advice: The first step is to realize your fear of insanity and collapse. The second step is to understand the negative energies that lie behind your fears. If you want them, you can overcome these fears by recognizing them.

Questions: What are your biggest fears? What would a total collapse of your life be like?

Suggestion: Once you have identified the areas of your fear, formulate your own specific statement and use only positive concepts to help yourself "reprogram" yourself.

Revelation: Negative thinking hinders the natural momentum of my life. When I turn to myself with love, I open up again to life.

Analogies:

Ji-Ching: 18. Ku (Restoration, Working on Depravity)

Mythology: The Border Guards (Terminus)

Keywords: downfall, deadline, border; end position; an arbitrary violent end

To face the fight, you need more than one weapon.

TEN OF SWORDS

General Meaning

The Ten of this suit represents finality, the end of something. As is easy to grasp from the picture in many decks, there is no hope for revival here. A limit has been reached, a line has been crossed and there is no turning back. In some situations this may be felt as a tragic loss, but it often brings with it a paradoxical sense of release and closure. The waiting and wondering are over. There is no more ambiguity. You can rightly let go and move on, as there is no more progress to be made here.

Emotionally and psychologically, this card appears when one is exhausted and used up, burnt out by the effort of caring and responding and trying to make a difference. When a person feels this way, they have reached burnout and can no longer be held responsible for anything, and therefore can be forgiven for caving in or ceding the fight. The simple instructions are: "Go no further along these lines!"

In the Reversed Position

The Ten of Swords is reversed suggests that you may have been over-dramatizing your predicament. In an attempt to get sympathy and understanding from others, you have begun to believe your own stories and excuses.

Ask yourself what you would do if there were no one around to sympathize with you. Would you be making a faster recovery? If you reframe your situation to emphasize the chance to start fresh, things won't seem so bad. Consider the possibility that you are indulging in drama; take a more accurate look at your situation.

In the Advice Positon

The Ten of Swords in this position advises that you lay low for a while. Don't make a move. Keep yourself as safe as possible until the drama, even the possible trauma, plays itself out. Once the turmoil dies down, then you can assess the damage and start to make repairs. The situation can be compared to a hurricane moving through the neighborhood. You can't be sure whether it is going to pass over a corner of the field or whether it is going to slam into your house.

In the face of such unpredictability, protect yourself, hope for the best and wait it out. Sometimes, an extreme turn of events serves as a pressure relief valve for all the unexpressed and unresolved energy that had been building up. Trust the process even though things may seem pretty drastic right now.

Read more:

• » The Book of Thoth - A Short Essay on the Tarot of the Egyptians by Aleister Crowley.
• » Liber LXXVIII - On the Tarot - A complete treatise on the Tarot giving the correct designs of the cards with their attributions and symbolic meanings on all planes. - A description of the Cards of the Tarot, with their attributions, including a method of divination by their use.
• » Manuscript N - The Tarot - A Golden Dawn Manuscript - A Theoricus Adeptus Minor Paper.