The Ten of Swords

Rock bottom.

Upright

Low points, ruin, rock bottom.

Reversed

Acceptance of a difficult situation, courage to rise again.

The Ten of Swords is not a happy card. A lot of practitioners interpret this card to mean rock bottom and ruin: the lowest point in a cycle, or even in your life. The Modern Witch Tarot contains a version of the Ten of Swords where a woman is scrolling on her phone lying down while stabbed by ten swords, and the caption reads “This Is Fine.” I love this accurate meme-ing of the Tarot; the Ten of Swords shows a situation where we are definitely, definitely not fine, even when we are acting like it.

Is there a bright side to this card? Maybe. I think this card represents the ultimate test: the most pain, but also the most to be gained in experience. If you can make it through this, you are going to be wise AF.

The card also gets a bit more positive when reversed. If we turn the card upside-down, the figure is lifted up by the swords instead of crushed by them. We can interpret this to mean acceptance of a difficult situation, forgiveness, and the courage to rise again. The Ten reversed can also mean passing gains and advantages during a time that is otherwise quite bad.

Note the similarity to the Three of Swords, where a heart is being stabbed by three swords. While the Three is a card of inner conflict, the Ten is one of full-scale experiences embedded in the world. The challenge on the Three is a mini, inner version of the much bigger and more complex challenge pictured in the Ten.