Thoth
Card name: Ten of Swords
First impressions
Nine swords, with varying hilts – discussed below - are arranged in the pattern of the Tree of Life. A tenth is shattered at their centre. There is a heart radiating rays of light in the Tiphareth position. The background is orange with red geometric shapes – like the pinwheels but almost as if they have been scribbled over in red. Glyphs of the sun and Gemini.
From the Book of Thoth
THE FOUR TENS
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.
RUIN TEN OF SWORDS
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.
Images and Symbolism
Frieda Harris says in her essays:
Ten of Swords= Ruin. Malkuth in the suit of Air. Sun in Gemini. The Swords are arranged on the Tree of Life, but the points one to five, and seven to nine, shatter the central Sword which represents the Sun, the Heart. The background is a flame with explosive destruction. This card shows reason run mad and a riot of soulless mechanism.
Also:
Ten of Swords = Ruin. Sun in Gemini.
Again the design is the Tree of Life on which the swords are arranged, the centre one is the heart or Sun which is broken in fragments. The mind has let go all control and whirls in tormented madness.
Snuffin points out that nine swords have destroyed the 10th in the position of Tiphareth. I see the heart as being in that position too. He says that the 5 upper ones are responsible for the shattering, and points out that the hilts in Chesed and Geburah bear Tau Crosses (Saturn); those in Choikmah and Binah have hourglasses (time, and also Saturn) – Kether has scales – Libra, which is exalted in Saturn. So the worst side of Saturn is in action here. Right through to death.
The four swords below support the remains of the sword of Tiphareth; the hilts in Hod and Netzaxch bear Saturnian symbols two – crosses, but of points rather than Tau crosses – restriction, Yesod has sun at its centre, and Malkuth an pentagram (man) and a Moon. The unconscious comesto the surface.
There are ten rays of light form Tiphareth; they indicate a physical manifestation of destruction. The background colours are those of Mars. Mars was once known as the Lesser Malefic and Saturn as the Greater; malignance and then some !
Banzhaf points out that the heart forms the hilt of the Tiphareth sword. This sword represents the centre, the connection between above and below, and so its shattering is indeed ruin.
Meaning (cribbed from Wasserman)
Ruin. Reason divorced from reality. Death. Failure. Disaster yet not entirely without hope. Disruption. Idle chatter. Clever, eloquent and insolent person, impertinent yet with mirth. Spiritually, may herald the end of delusion.
DuQuette
Ten: Ruin, death, defeat, disruption
Almost a worse symbol than the Nine of Swords. Undisciplined, warring force, complete disruption and failure. Ruin of all plans and projects. Disdain, insolence and impertinence, yet mirth and jollity therewith. A marplot, loving to overthrow the happiness of others; a repeater of things; given to much unprofitable speech, and of many words. Yet clever, eloquent, etc., according to dignity.
Traditional meanings – From Thirteen’s book of meanings:
TENS
As the aces were the pure, elemental spark of the suit, the tens are the element of the suit complete, both physical and spiritual.
These cards are about what completes that turn of the wheel, getting it back to "1" and yet carrying with it all that it has experienced through those other numbers on its way round the circle.
Ten of Swords
A man dead with ten swords in his back. There are cards in the tarot that can scare querents and this is one of those. Readers should remind their sitters, however, that Swords refer to the mind and communication, not murder.
When, like the Wheel, thoughts come back around to the top carrying with them all past discussions, arguments, analysis and attempts to solve problems, they also come to an end. There is no more left to know about the subject or say about it. Dramatic and frightening as this image is, it essentially says that any path your mind could go down has been gone down; any discussion you could have on this topic has been discussed.
Of course, the image doesn't just portray a death, but a murder and a brutal one at that. Stabbed in the back. The words and thoughts of others can stab you in the back, murdering your theory, idea, reputation. Any of these may be the victim portrayed in this image, but there is a positive. The worst has been done. And new theories, ideas and even reputations can be found.
When the querent gets this card the advice is that it is time to end whatever has been on their mind, or whatever issue they've been arguing or discussing. They have gone as far as they can with these thoughts or argument. Even if they could argue more or differently, everyone is tried of listening to them. It is also likely that dwelling on this issue has left the querent's mind weary, dull, dead. It is time for a new topic that will enliven the mind rather than keeping it pinned to the ground.
(I include Thirteen’s meanings here, but the way, as while someone else was adding them to her Thoth posts, I found them enlightening in context, even though the descriptions are way different !)
My impressions (appearance of the card):
It is less chaotic than some of the small swords cards, and to my mind less unpleasant than the nine. Strangely the brokenness of the Tiphareth sword was not the first thing that I noticed about this card; I noticed more the heart and its rays of light. Also the scribbling over the pinwheels (aka Swastikas).
My take (what I make of it/what I might see in a reading where I drew it)
I’m not quite sure, actually, but probably all forces are united against what matters most to you – everything points viciously at that heart ! Protect yourself; the light suggests not all hope is lost; the heart still beats !
