Oh dear, it’s another “difficult” card. 10 of Swords can be even more difficult than XIII Death. In XIII Death, something has come to it’s natural end and there’s a transition as a result. In 10 of Swords the natural end is the result of following our faulty mental constructs into ruin. We have to face the fact that our way of doing things just does not work.
The good news in 10 of Swords is that things are as bad as they can be. The worst has happened. Everything has come to naught. It can’t get any worse. Remember, from earlier in the month, the 10s always lead to a new cycle. There are new ideas to be conceived and developed. We’re done with the incompetent regime and have an opportunity to develop a clearer view of reality.
We can do that while we’re immobilized by all those rigid ideas that brought us to this point. In David Sexton’s Winged Spirit Tarot, the swords are already in motion. We’ve been overturned and our ideas have been shaken up, ready to fall into new ways of thinking. In the Rider-Waite-Smith 10 of Swords, the swords are lined up along the energy centres of the spine, stimulating a higher view of reality, indicated by the gesturing hand in the foreground (the “prana mudra” that encourages the life force in the body).
Be kind to yourself when you run into 10 of Swords. Be as rational as you can in assessing where your thinking became too inflexible. Take the time to let go of the past, to heal, where necessary, and to mentally audition plans for what’s next. Very occasionally, 10 of Swords can be an indicator that surgery is on the horizon, so make sure you have a professional opinion available about health matters.