Ten of Swords - Rewilding the Tarot
Rewilding the Tarot is a bridge between the traditional meanings and significations of the tarot and our lived experiences, both mundane and magical. It is a way of seeing the natural, the cyclical, the wild and the wise within an old modality, in a new way. Where older card meanings can feel outdated, patriarchied or abstract, the Tarot Rewilded is relatable and alive, bringing the beautifully obvious out from underneath obscurity.
Here you will find a deepening of the traditional meanings of Ten Swords, and some processes and offerings for connecting to it’s medicine.
Pagan Otherworlds Deck by Uusi.
Thorny blackberry plants are extremely regenerative to the soil beneath, though they may kill and strangle other plants along their way.
Keys & Themes
Completed Air. Sun in Gemini. Spring Equinox.
Cusp of endings and beginnings, letting go of old beliefs to make way for new one’s, acknowledgment of how we have been shaped by the past, glimpse of something new, an end to mourning, a herald, morning birdsong, the end of the end, a moment between breaths, pre-emergence, the last step out of the underworld
Ten Swords Rewilded
What an ending that 10th sharpened point has brought, piercing us without mercy, arguably long after the deathblow was delivered. The poison on the tips of the blades in the Nine has done it’s work, though the ache of it is now behind us, and the moment of dying has been and gone. We have walked the Underworld, submitted to death, loss and change, and are now taking our last few steps back up into the world above once more, readying ourselves to emerge in the lightening dawn.
Like the corpse on the Smith Rider-Waite 10 of swords, the finality of death is not recent, new, nor is it breaking news. This death occurred some time past, and its finality was inescapable. We have already sat with this death, and felt something once very alive and real to us slip away. The 10 of swords carries an inevitability that no other card, save Death itself, can rival. But it also brings with it the birdsong of the breaking dawn.
It may feel like this dawn is the first sliver of warmth, light and hope that has touched us for some time. It is a signal that new things are on the horizon, a point in the distance the dark may have kept veiled and obscured for what seemed a very long time. and in this ever so short moment of balance between light and dark, we take pause before moving on. The morning light may feel pre-emptive or hollow in the face of what we have lost or released. But there is time for gentle transition, and when we are ready to greet the day, we will find ourselves enveloped in it’s promise of warmth, hope and new life.
In the face of the dawn, do not rush, dear heart. Your eyes and heart and mind may need a moment to adjust to this shift in light. Muscles sore from cradling yourself need slowness to allow themselves to flex again without injury. But do relax the grip on the old, on the hurts, on the hand of the body that has left this world for the next one. For it cannot be carried forward with you. Your courageous heart has made room to hold it in a whole new form that you will always carry with you, good or bad, and your clever mind will learn the ways of this new kind of relating over time. For it is time now, after a long exhale of releasing, to enter the pause between breath out, and breath in - a lung-full of new morning air, ready to carry you forward.
And so, dear one, welcome back from the Underworld. You are here, no longer there, and the beginning of the new day is upon you. The journey through any darkness is both short and long. May the birdsong that greets you here fill your heart with new hope, and heal the aches of the past.
Living Ten Swords
Ten Swords from the Sasuraibito Tarot.
When Ten Swords appears in a reading, I have often found that upon explaining its meaning, it has brought a big, breath of relief and acknowledgment, rather than the fear or sadness that might be expected from such grim imagery. Several other cards can indicate an ending, such as Death, The World, Eight Cups, or the other Tens. What differentiates Ten Swords is both the un-take-backable finality, and the sense that the death blow has been delivered already. A big part of the death journey has already been walked - the initial loss, the shock, the first waves of grief - what awaits us now is the walk away from mourning, and acknowledgment that the loss we encountered is becoming ready to be integrated as a difficult, but inescapable part of our past experience. If death is an out breath, Ten Swords is the pause between exhale and inhale - Completed Air.
Ten Swords can certainly refer to a vast multitude of different endings, from relationship breakups to the death of someone beloved, the end of a job and other more obvious lived finalities. But keeping in line with Swords being the element of Air, and weaving in the Ten of completion, there is a change occurring due to an earlier truth being revealed. Something new was seen, discovered or learned that has altered our perception in the Six, has been tested, liberated and resisted in the Seven, Eight and Nine, and can only be integrated in the Ten through accepting the changes it requires. Something has been seen that cannot be unseen, and the ramifications of that are now here, in all its gruesome glory. We cannot shy away from the stench of death that reminds us of what’s gone. It can be a horrifying thing, deeming and accepting the values of our past as obsolete or irreverent at best, and at worst, diseased and ill-begotten.
If we consider the cards before and after, the Nine of Swords and the Page of Swords, we can see a story of poison or internal adversity being overcome, allowed to change shape through death, and be left behind us in order to begin a hero’s journey anew. We have learned so much, and while the new sword we carry as the Page, tempered by experience and made sharp by refining our souls truth, may feel over large and cumbersome at first, it is only through practice and use that we will find comfort in its application and purpose. But before we can wield this new power, we must pass the final test of releasing the cut threads that no longer serve, severing attachment to things long dead. To eventually step into the role of the Page of Swords, we must be courageous enough to walk the values and ideals that we found on our journey for truth, and abandon the old beliefs that are no longer relevant.
It is also useful to see Ten Swords as the last few steps out of the underworld, in which we can see the light awaiting us at the end of the tunnel. This is particularly cathartic when we feel it has been nothing but darkness for a long time. Like Persephone, returning to the world above changed and more aligned to the dark parts of herself, these last few steps carry the final moments of her initiation, and mark the last demands of her commitment to the new truths she embodies. Will she re-emerge with new purpose, a clearer sense of self, and the bravery to be that out in the world, fully seen?
“Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me -
The carriage held but just ourselves,
And Immortality.”
- Emily Dickinson
Ten Swords Shadowed
Difficulty integrating challenging truths, limiting beliefs stopping the natural process of release, second guessing what we know in our hearts and minds to be true, revisiting the Underworld in hope for a more palatable truth, feeling stuck in grief or loss, more time needed for mourning, unreadiness for the dawn.
When Ten Swords is shadowed/reversed, or perhaps stuck, we can look back to the card that comes before to see if any of those themes are not yet completed, or are holding us back from full embodiment of the ten. Are we having trouble letting go because fear is still driving us? Is there healing to be done before we can really let go of a trauma or difficult moment in our lives?
When looking at the Smith Rider Waite version of the card, Ten Swords reversed looks as though those swords could fall right out of the body, effortlessly. Sometimes this card reversed is showing a releasing process that could be happening on a more unconscious level, or that is supported by unseen forces to bring this ending to it’s final conclusion. With the dark sky beneath, and the earthy ground above, I imagine a loosening of those swords from their wounds from a more-than-human, upside down world. We don’t always need to know what healing or shifting is taking place, and sometimes that is for the best.
Practices & Processes
We can lean in to what Completed (10) Air (swords) means by taking a big breath in, a big breath out, and holding that moment of emptied lungs for a short time. Or by singing a song from start to finish, and feeling the last notes escape your lips, feeling the beauty of what it was to be in the song, and what it means now that it is over. To be without air is to be without life. This is the finality the 10 of Swords carries. But even in the face of our own deaths, life continues on for others. The birds will still sing up the sun. The earth will continue to spin. And while other Suns are dying, new one’s are being born in such a magnificent reciprocity and sharing of both lifescapes and deathscapes.
A ritual burying may help release the ties to something gone. Whether you have something relevant to bury, or you select an offering to put into the ground - a plant part, a crystal, old candle wax, whatever you like as long as it is degradable (not plastic etc) and not dangerous if it gets dug up (like glass). Take nothing else with you but something to make a little hole with (hands are ideal), shoes that can get dirty (feet are ideal), and your heart full and ready to pour into your letting go. You may have some words to speak of thanks or endings or severing cords, but the act itself is the prayer, so if no words come, trust that. If this has been a difficult ending, consider lighting a candle to begin the ritual, and blowing it out to end it. Sit with your newly covered grave, marked or unmarked, as long as feels right. “And so it is done”.
Also: Wake an hour before dawn and hold vigil to meet it, nettle tea, bury something, get acupuncture
Self-enquiry & Journalling Prompts for Ten Swords
The point of balance between light and dark can hold a mix of experiences. Are you anxiously anticipating the light, ready to greet it with enthusiastic joy and expectation for all it brings? Or has it come as a surprise, as the darkness still feels heavy in your heart? It’s not always a choice how we meet the dawn, but meet it we shall. As you ready yourself for that first breath of the morning, will you pour your song from your lungs and join the dawn chorus? Or will you purposefully exhale all that you held in your lungs in the dark, allowing the birdsong to wash over and heal those aching parts? What will you create with the breath you are holding, ready to sound into the lightening dawn morning?
Ten Swords Spread - Dawnsong
This spread is flexible in that it can be used as a day to day spread to work with what we are leaving/moving toward at the start of each day, or it can be used for bigger, more transitional life events, when we feel on the cusp or at the end of an underworld journey.
Pull out Ten Swords as your Significator.
1. What is being left behind with the dark
2. What we can learn from this releasing
3. What this Dawnsong is ushering in
4. How we can best embrace and welcome the new dawn
Rebecca is a Naturopath, Kinesiologist & Mentor, and has been practicing and working with the Tarot for over 20 years. Upon finding her Oma’s Tarot deck when she was 13, she knew that she had found a lifelong ally, and from there a deep love of Witchcraft grew.
Rebecca reads the Tarot with genuine warmth and honesty, journeying with the Seeker to find clarity and truth. Her approach brings a Rewilded perspective to the Tarot, making it approachable, relatable, and as rooted in the mundane as it is woven in the otherworldly.
This article is the property of Rebecca van Horssen. It is intended for personal and individual use only, and is not to be used for profit, or group education purposes. For more information or to gain permission to use any part of this written content please contact Rebecca directly. All photographs used are either personal or from the public domain.