The Bloodstone

It shines like the sun. It burns like a torch. Prometheus's blood illuminates and delineates.

Tarot Essay: The 10 of Swords

The tarot is very important to me. It is my preferred method of divination and I find it to be a fluid and varied set of symbols that continuously unfolds and shows me new things and insights. Let's explore, for a few moments, the symbolic connotations of one of the tarot cards.  Eventually I'd like to get through all 78 but I'll be tackling them one at a time and not necessarily in any specific order.

10 of Swords

 Asking my deck which of the cards to write about I have pulled the 10 of Swords. The Ten of Swords, in the Marseilles deck that I am using, indicates the end of cycles on the mental plane. 10s are endings, deaths, the shell that is left after life has vacated a thing. Applied to the mental plane this could be ancient ideologies, old ideas that no one subscribes to anymore; the policies of an Old Guard that are considered embarrassing to believe. The 10 of Swords indicates forgotten technologies lying dormant in lost books. 10s are passive / receptive numbers they indicate the full cessation in the turning of a cycle, the desiccated bones of a once mighty beast. No more chance for growth.  All putrefaction has ended and now nutrients wait for the spark of the next cycle to begin.


In a divination the 10 of Swords indicates a resting period, a space in between the active waning of old ideas and the germination of new ideas. It is a card that tells you to let things be, stop thinking about it. The moment when these ideas were valid has passed. It is time to abandon the plans.  

Looking at the continuum of benefit to liability on one end we have rest, the end of a cycle of growth with all its trials, hardships and rewards. In light of the Swords suit this could be the day after academic graduation.
On the other end we have loss, the shocked silence after an immediate cessation of ideas and thoughts. It could be a traitor lying comfortably in a country to whom he sold his homeland.  It could be amnesia from a traumatic brain injury.

The image of this card always struck me as looking like two swords thrust into a pair of lungs through a ribcage. Given the airy connotations of the suit of Swords this makes some sense to me. It fits the tone of this card. 

Beginning With The Tarot, pt 1

Advice to those beginning to use tarot cards.
1. The magic lies in shuffling. The magic lies in knowing when to stop.
2. If the cards don't make sense the error lies in the interpretation.
3. Even if you can't interpret the reading into words, a part of you still understands.
4. All interpretations are correct.
5. Rules that include who can touch your cards, how they need to be energized or cleansed, or how they need to stored you set yourself. Make your own rules.
6. All the cards have a range of interpretations.

More to come...