Welcome to this meditation with the Ten of Swords.
Depending on the deck,
You're likely seeing someone laying in the prone position,
Pierced by ten swords.
If you've pulled this card,
You may want to have it in front of you doing this meditation,
Taking it in with your eyes open or imagining and feeling with your eyes closed.
Feel free to shift between open and closed eyes depending on what feels most right to you and if you have that image in front of you or if it's just in your imagination.
Before we talk too much about the meaning of this card,
Just sit with the image.
Gaze at it if you have it there or pull it up in your mind's eye.
Take a moment to notice which details pop out at you.
What's your first thought about what this card means to you,
If you have one,
Especially if it's answering a question?
What is the mood of the card for you?
Do you like the card?
Do you dislike it?
What do you notice about the posture of the figure on the card,
Usually laying on the ground,
Belly down,
Head turned to one side?
Do you relate to this figure?
Does the scene remind you of anyone or anything,
Maybe a recent experience?
Do you feel distanced from this card like you don't quite get it?
What do you feel in your body as you were looking at this card?
Whatever is coming up for you,
Just take a moment.
Your feelings about the card reveal more about its meaning than anything I'm about to tell you.
The magic of the tarot is that it pulls forward knowledge you already have,
But maybe didn't realize it.
We'll pull it together in a moment,
But for now,
Just trust your unconscious and conscious mind to give you information about what this card means for you today.
Now take all that information your own mind and body just gave you,
And let's talk about the Ten of Swords.
The Ten of Swords can be a brutal image,
But it's also powerful and beautiful in a way.
In the traditional version of this card,
The person looks like they could be dead,
Though no blood comes from the swords the person is pierced with.
I've seen versions of this card where someone is up and walking away into a sunrise or sunset.
I've seen ones where the person pierced looks awake and aware,
Not as disturbed by the ten piercings as maybe they should be.
In the modern witch tarot deck,
The woman pierced by ten swords is scrolling on her phone.
When this card comes up,
I suspect that the person it was drawn for has been feeling more pain than they've maybe been willing to admit to themselves,
Even.
We may want to look at where and how we've been numbing the pain,
Distracting ourselves so we can't fully feel what we've been going through.
This could represent a trauma in the past that someone is still working through or hasn't looked at yet at all.
It could also be like death by a thousand paper cuts,
So many little things that the person has become exhausted,
Unable to get up,
Sort of physically or emotionally or spiritually.
For me,
This card is also about grief.
There's something about the posture of the person in the traditional Rider-Waite version of the image,
Laying on his belly,
Head turned to the side,
That is,
For me,
A posture of grief.
It's where we go when we feel like all is lost,
We just want to get as close to the ground as we can and sleep or cry.
When grief is heavy,
It can feel like we can't get up.
This could be a card of depression,
Being so weighed down by our thoughts we can barely rise,
And we might feel as if a part of us has died.
Just notice if any of this is resonating for you.
Take a moment to breathe and feel what's happening in your body.
And if your mind is not aware of the ten swords piercing you,
Your body probably knows it.
Swords are about intellectual energy,
Representing the element of air.
The ten is the natural culmination of a chapter of the journey of the swords,
The learning that we need to do about the suit of swords.
In balance,
This is a sword of discernment,
Able to tell the difference between truth and illusion.
When it's out of balance,
It's double-edged,
The sword that can hurt us as easily as it hurts someone else.
While we may be in pain,
It's possible that our pain is,
To some degree,
Self-inflicted.
Whatever has happened to us,
The worst of it is what we make it mean,
How we interpret the world around us.
It's our thoughts that are making us feel exhausted and unwell.
The suit of swords reminds us not to believe everything we think.
So take a moment right now to contact your body directly.
See if you can notice any thoughts that are coming up,
Especially if they're thought patterns that hurt,
That cause hurt within yourself,
Like self-criticism.
What would it feel like if you were to be very gentle now,
Or to rest until you feel like you can pull out each one of those swords one at a time,
Fully feeling the pain as you do?
Feel free to write down any reflections that are coming to you as you settle with the meanings of this card for you today.
Remember to trust your own reactions more than any meaning someone else has written down.
Thank you for listening,
And good luck working with the archetype of the Ten of Swords.
