Magic Power

The Ten of Swords is a card of overkill and ruin.

Magic Charm

Focus on this card when you want to prevent or recover from gossip and backstabbing.

Key Symbols

• A student lies face down on the ground, impaled by a series of ten swords up and down his spine.

• The card symbolizes destruction and loss, the breakdown of relationships, disillusion, and disloyalty. It does not, however, represent violent death.

• In a tarot reading, the card normally relates to gossip and backstabbing — most of which don’t occur all at once. The Ten of Swords is death by a thousand cuts.

• From the student’s vantage point, there’s no perspective. He may feel his life is ruined. It will take courage for him to rise up and live again.

• The young man is dressed in yellow, the elemental color of air. It indicates that he’s normally thoughtful and quick, and that he’s a student of air magic.

• He’s pictured in a spring landscape, because the suit of swords corresponds to the season of spring.