10 of swords -- Bad card? Good Card?

So what's the difference between the 10 and the 9 then? Because I usually see the 9 as the card of overthinking, overworrying about things - being kept up at night be anxieties etc.

For me the 10 is more about endings. The battle is finally over, the conflict, mental conflict, right, cause it's swords, has hit rock bottom, it can't possibly get any worse, so now you can clean up the mess and move on.

edit to add - it can be bad, a very painful ending to something, or it can be good, a relief that it's finally done.

mtnmermaid said:

So what's the difference between the 10 and the 9 then? Because I usually see the 9 as the card of overthinking, overworrying about things - being kept up at night be anxieties etc.

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I agree. With the nine, you're in the thick of the mental anguish. If you could stop these tormenting thoughts you would, but you just can't seem to release them. They overtake you in the night and your mind is consumed with them during the day.

For me the 10 is more about endings. The battle is finally over, the conflict, mental conflict, right, cause it's swords, has hit rock bottom, it can't possibly get any worse, so now you can clean up the mess and move on.

edit to add - it can be bad, a very painful ending to something, or it can be good, a relief that it's finally done.

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Yes, it *can* be a very painful ending. And not all mental anguish results in an event that is painful. Lots of mental anguish is imaginary. As someone who used to be subject to worry, I know that much of my mental anguish never resulted in any painful occurance (beyond the mental/emotional pain of the anguish itself). I would worry about this or that happening in the future and how I would deal with it. I had to consciously train myself to learn how to cross those bridges if/when they occurred, not in the middle of the night in a cold sweat with imaginary scenarios. The end of my worries came when I learned not to overburden myself with "what if's."

However, when I was enduring the violence and abuse of my first marriage and I would worry what would happen if I left, if I stayed, what to do, how to go about doing it, what should be my plan of escape, who will help me, etc., that period before I left could indeed have been very well represented by the nine of swords. When I left, there were some very nasty scenes, a drawn out custody battle, more threats and more legal hassles than you could shake a stick at. A painful ending to be sure. But relief! To finally get out from under that oppressive man's control and violence and torture was truly a GOOD thing. Ten of swords. The relationship was dead. The time of thinking over what I was going to do was over. No way would I go back. It was final the day I walked out the door because it was a final decision, regardless the tying up of many, many loose ends afterwards.

It's a ten, so it's a turning point.

~Mercy

miss_yuko said:

The guy in the card is dead...if he's not, he's dying. His suffering has ended or will end very soon...you'll have to bury him and start again. I guess this guy is that part of ourselves we have to bury when all just...goes...wrong, or seems to be going on that direction.

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I guess with ten swords sticking in his back he's already dead ! But you make an important point we often fail to consider with all 10s - but with the 10 of Swords in particular. It is, after all, related to X-The Wheel of Fortune. The wheel must turn, always, if change is to occur. When the wheel gets stuck - when we hold it back with our mind or our inaction - then we can stay a long time in the position of the 10 of Swords. We fail to complete the cycle from 10 to Ace, which the card suggests (with its reduction from 10 to 1, but also in the image of the rising sun). One of the ways we deal with the Wheel of Fortune is to let go - mentally not interfere with the process of change (that doesn't mean we remain inactive); another is acceptance of the present reality: the guy's dead. Let's bury him and get on with things. The danger is to focus on the dead guy, let him lie there & complain (and there we get back to the martyr complex mentioned above) and not see the sun rising & all the new opportunities rising with it - finding a million reasons why we shouldn't look at the rising sun, or why it isn't really a rising sun, or it'll burn us anyway, etc. etc.

MercyMe's own story of her marriage break-up illustrates that very well - the ending might be messy (10 swords are messy), but it's an ending. Those who can see and accept that reality, and focus on the sunrise in the distance, seeing it as an approaching opportunity, have a better chance of completing the cycle and getting back to the Ace: a fresh start (and actually, in the Tarot, the suit of Pentacles follows the suit of Swords, so the next Ace would be the Ace of Pentacles - the birth of trust and a new reality - or in the case of work: a new job!).

No card is inherently *good* or *bad* -- it's all in the way the situation is viewed and I see all challenges as opportunities anyway. Is the 10 of swords difficult? Yes, I believe it is.

Getting the same card for the second question is a *confirmation* of the first answer. It's also a good time to stop asking, essentially, the *same* question. In fact, it's best not to ask the same question twice in any short period of time.

Here's what I'm thinking about the question asked...

10 in numerology basically means completion and also beginning. The swords can reveal strategy and anything related to the mind (thinking, thought, etc..)

""will he get the offer letter tomorrow?" and "will he get the email of offer tomorrow ?""

10 of Swords

One card pulled would not be enough to answer this question fully. I would pull a card from another suit (probably wands), in addition to a major arcana card to get the *fuller picture*.

By pulling one card, we get a part of the story. A focus.

The question is also phrased for a "yes/no" answer and that makes it hard for the card to *respond*.

The focus, as I believe it, is this: After mentally exhausting oneself in a search for an amazing position, one will be forced to lay in wait for the answer. The answer is unknown at this time.

Hope that helped.

Just a side note...10 of swords + Physical Death

Did a reading for someone last night and the 10 of swords came up to mean death. When I do Celtic Cross spreads, I have this funny habit of pulling an additional ten cards and overlaying them on the primary ten of the spread - sort of helps me understand the context of the first cards I pulled (who, what, why etc) So anyway, I did a general reading for someone and drew the 5 of cups as the original card for the "Recent Past" placement. When I pulled the extra cards, the 10 of swords showed up as clarification for the 5 of cups I'd pulled earlier.
I interpreted this as him recently feeling much sadness at a great loss which he had suffered..usually since cups deal with relationships..I sort of blurted out, "you lost someone. It's devastated you!" To which he immediately replied "yes..my best friend died of cancer a few weeks ago." To wrap this lil story up, 10 of swords = definite endings, but also the end of suffering (like a cancer patient who succumbs). So in other words, it CAN mean actual physical death too. After my intial post of the 10 of swords portraying melodrama, probably the card wanted to let me know "hey, don't take me lightly. I'm a pretty serious card when I want to be." Guess it showed me!