The Tarot's Ten of Swords: It's Always Darkest Before The Dawn

It doesn't get much grimmer than this, does it?  You can just hear the gasp a person might take if they were to draw this card in a reading.  What's it mean anyway? Doom, gloom and futility?

The Swords symbolize one of two things. They either represent mental alacrity and acuteness or strife and turmoil and in rare instances both. Obviously, with the Ten of Swords we are talking strife and misfortune. 

However, it's critical to keep in mind that pain is not a punishment but, as the psychologist Harriest Goldhor-Lerner suggests, "a reminder from the Universe saying now is the time to make another choice" for yourself.You can either stay "flat on your back" or begin searching for possibility. As my dear friend Teresa so wisely explained, "Consider that pain is not meant to hurt you, but to show you where the healing can start."

Here are some questions I might ask a client in response to this card:

-How is that that you find yourself feeling hopeless and despairing?

-Do you feel betrayed? Literally, "stabbed in the back"?

-What forces or people are holding you down?

-Have you been "sleeping" while others take advantage of you?

- Is something contributing to you just wanting to "lie down and die"?

-What would it take to rally yourself?

-Does anyone benefit from your being in a one-down position?

-What's the "up" side to being dysfunctional? Do you get others to take care of you?

-Do you have an "opposite" voice to this voice of hopelessness? If so, what would it be?

-If you've been playing the "martyr", when will you stop?

-Are others "bleeding you dry"?

-How long have you engaged in self-sacrifice?  What are the consequences if you were to stop?

Remember that the number "10" corresponds to the number "1" in numerology and "1" symbolizes beginnings, fresh starts, and initiative. So the The of Swords message is a paradox, really, because although on the surface it looks like the "end" it is, in fact, heralding a "beginning". The only way the phoenix arises is from the ashes.