Ten of Swords

Minor Arcana · Swords · number 10 · Dieci di Spade

Ten of Swords, plate by Pamela Colman Smith
Pamela Colman Smith, 1910

Upright

The Ten of Swords is a man lying on the ground with ten blades in his back, under a black sky clearing at the horizon: pain, affliction, tears, sadness, desolation. Waite says it is not a card of violent death: it is a card of rock bottom. If these days you feel finished, after a dismissal, a breakup, a betrayal, it is no accident. But ten swords are too many even for a drama: the worst has passed, it is not on its way. It is not a sentence. The practical advice: let someone help you up, and look at the horizon, not at the swords.

Source: Arthur Edward Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910) · read the original passage
«Whatsoever is intimated by the design; also pain, affliction, tears, sadness, desolation. It is not especially a card of violent death.»

Reversed

Reversed, the Ten of Swords gets back up: advantage, profit, success, favour, and also power and authority. But Waite warns that none of these things is permanent. After rock bottom comes a recovery, a new job, a gain, a recognition, and it feels like winning. If these days things are turning your way again, it is no accident: you paid the price. Just be careful not to build on this fortune as if it would last forever. The practical advice: use the advantage to settle accounts and foundations, not to expand. The next wave should be met with the stores full.

Source: Arthur Edward Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910) · read the original passage
«Advantage, profit, success, favour, but none of these are permanent; also power and authority.»

Source

Arthur Edward Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910) Part III, § 2, The Lesser Arcana, Ten of Swords https://archive.org/details/a.-e.-waite-the-pictorial-key-to-the-tarot