LS Secret Tarot - 10 of Wands

I see that it's been a long while since anyone contributed to this discussion. However, I just got this deck and I feel I have to throw my own two cents in. As I see it, this lady is a bored aristocrat, a member of the "leisure" class. I think her husband doesn't work any harder than she does and is likely out hunting foxes or playing polo. I see the skull as symbolizing the oppression and untimely demise from overwork of the common laborers, servants, and lower classes upon whose efforts the lavish lifestyles of the privileged has been built and is sustained. Another possibility is that the skull could symbolize parents who have clawed their way to the top and passed on their wealth to their pampered children.

The wands on the wall aren't real, they are just stylized depictions. The indolent rich (members of the "lucy sperm club") take pride in their wealth and lavish estates as if they built them with their own hands, but the real credit belongs to those who contributed with their blood, sweat, and tears.

In interpretation, I would ask, "Am I allowing others to unfairly dump their reponsibilities onto my shoulders?" "Am I taking on the burden of taking care of others who should be able to take care of themselves?" "Am I so busy taking care of others that I'm neglecting my own needs?"

This has been a hard card for me to understand but I think I understand a little bit better while thinking more about it and from what others have posted here.

- The smoking could mean she smokes in what she has, while breathing it out around her space. It could mean cleaning her space around the house and expanding it. For some reason I see this as an essence.

- The skull that she has reminds me of the death card, you know those skulls that are in the ground. It could mean she was worked through her last bone and sweat, and she kind of shows the skull as an example. Also, because this reminds me of the death card. I think the skull can also represent a new beginning and now that she has everything what new things can she brings instead of the old things she has achieved.

- The wands in the wall makes me thing of some special wall paper with the wands plastered in the walls. I guess with that in mind it represents each cycle of hard work she has done. The cycle has come to an end.

Reversed

When it is reversed, she has lost her lavish life style for whatever reason and start has to start all over. She has to make new goals or responsibilities. She may have trouble because she has been used to the other life and starting all over can be devastating. I see it kind of going bankrupt and having to start all over again.

I wanted to add my thoughts on this card in case they make sense to anyone else

There's something very Shakesperean about this 10 of Wands. I get the impression (today, anyway) of a dippy bint who's somehow gotten exactly what she wanted by maybe nefarious means, and now the past is catching up to her. The shoelessness is the clue to her rapid unravelling, to me. She looks just slightly unhinged. Smoking casually while brandishing a skull . . . barefoot on cold stone but got up in a beautiful evening gown . . . something's not right with this picture. I want to say, "Out, damn spot!"

It shows cracking under pressure, IMO.

\m/ Kat

I love the twenties style of the dress and cigarette. Very confident. Not entirely likeable but this is someone who I can at least understand. She may put on airs but there's no real mystery there.

What a rich conversation this thread has been. I tend to get the impression that hard work--whether on her part or on the part of another--has created this place for her. Now it defines and possibly entraps her. The skull as a momento mori is a terrific insight. It links this card (the tendency of ten cards) to the death card as the end of a cycle, a transition, etc. She is pausing...waiting for a new challenge to present itself. The fact that her eyes are closed might be a clue that she is searching inward where her real burden lies. What is this burden?

Hello,

there are many elements in the map that make me think of a confinement:
I see doors or shutters on each side of the opening ... doors that can open and close
2 columns frame the opening, a high window ... What's there beyond?
The woman turns back to the outside, it is enclosed in a place that resembles a castle, is the smoke from his cigarette that is free to escape ...
The essence of the skull that it fits in the hand is being released by smoke from her cigarette ...
The skull represents the past, the legacy
Richly decorated doors, the weight of his condition, his environment
The two meetings have made it what it is:
a woman trapped in her community, which suffers the weight of his condition, useless, passive
The window, the sunny sky behind it, the rays of light at his feet shows the possibility to leave this state. He must make the decision to leave everything (the place with the security it represents, the skull) to move on.