The tale of the suit of swords is a powerful metaphor, one that ends in tragedy. The swords are a symbol of the intellect, of intelligence and logic, and yet we find the final culmination of this suit a complete and total defeat of the spirit. We must realize that the swords are a weapon that can have immense potential for destruction or for good. The story as it unfolds from the ace to the ten is one where an untrained individual uses this weapon for faulty reasons – makes many mistakes, and then spends an entire lifetime attempting to run away from the power that he misused.

This person believes the swords are external to him when they are part of him, and when they inevitably return, he once again suffers. His pain is not the pain of his circumstances usually, but the pain of fear, of anxiety, of not being able to be a master of his surroundings. After the hopelessness of the nine of swords, what could have happened? Were you overwhelmed by the pressure? Or did you take the final sword upon yourself and admit defeat?

The Ten of Swords depicts that situation where your mentality is ‘poor me’, you feel like there is nothing you can do. Pause and remember that as with the death card, the end of something means a new beginning. Let go of what you have lost, and focus on the new path forward because that is where your life is meant to go.