What were you thinking?

 

Every time I encounter the Ten of Swords however it is depicted, I tend to worry, mostly unnecessarily about whatever may or may not happen. Whatever that may be, can become my reality if my focus is on danger. Change your thoughts and change the outcome. Soothe the troubled worry. Perspective becomes Reality. 

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Spiritsong Tarot

Emotional blackmail

 

So much tragedy and loss and heartbreak is used to tug on our emotional heartstrings. Turning on any kind of media and you are exposed to it. The war, starving and abused children, tortured and abandoned animals, it gets to be too much. It hurts and scars and scares us. I turn on the tv and shortly thereafter turn it off. It emotionally wounds us. What's the answer, I don't really know. Don't want to ignore it all, but self-protection comes into play. Right now I just want to rescue a kitty that is hanging around the home. My cat, Kitty will not tolerate another, but I want to help the little cat, who runs as soon as I open the door. I guess that is the best answer, trying to do the best we can do with what's going on in our own homes and right outside our doors.

The Linestrider's Tarot

It's an ill wind that blows

Fear and angst can make us retract into a protective posture where all kinds of imagined troubles arise. Every uncomfortable or 'bad' thing that has happened before in our lives suddenly re-emerge and we can be carried away with our fear-based emotions. Oh my! 

Today I have to 'head-off' a situation before it spirals out of control. Best to head directly into the winds of discontent and face the buffeting blasts of  the perturbed response of another. To let it continue only will make things even more problematic.  Once done the winds of chaos will settle.

Celestial Tarot

Heal thyself

 

This card is usually my 'fear' card.  Today, not so much.  

This last week I left behind the deadlines and commitments and relaxed. This card reminds me those and other burdens are what is and soon to be, once were,  the wrecking influences in my life and health. Those fears are what have had be pinned down in a quagmire of pain and unease.  I may not completely shake the issues all at once, but I can work on them, one by one and begin my healing. 

Rider Waite-Smith Tarot

Another Winter's Day

 

The Ten of Swords, the most intimidating card in the Tarot, at least for me.  I drew multiple times, more than ten, in the months before a major trauma event. No matter the image depicted in any decks I envision myself laying out with the swords stuck long my back. An image I still cannot totally let go of.  And yet that is what I must. Those emotions, some buried some swirling continuously, old regrets intimidating me, shadowing my days.

Majestic Earth Tarot

I'll take 3

 

What a soft interpretation for the Ten of Swords.

Yesterday I drew the Ten of Pentacles, today the Ten of Swords.  If I were playing poker, I would toss 3 cards and keep the pair of Tens. Tens hint at a decision to be made. Easy choice, keeping the 2 tens and drawing 3 more in 5 Card Draw Poker.  But what if the other 3 cards that were dealt were more swords(spades)?  That choice would be more challenging; keeping the pair or try to draw in to a Flush.  I have such a fearful association with the Ten of Swords, I would probably fold the hand, even with a pair of tens. So for today, no decision would most likely be my best decision.

Spiritsong Tarot ~ Paulina Cassidy

Closed circle

Sometimes we are our own worst enemy.  Nothing has ever been accomplished by crying "woe is me."  Spending too much time with our regrets and disappointments doesn't get us anywhere.  After stumbling around in the eight of swords, and lamenting our sorrows in the nine, time to toss those thoughts of worry in the fire and release ourselves from the 'if onlies.'
One thing ends another begins.


The Green Witch Tarot

Ouie

Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch.
Overmuch on the ouches.  One for every sword point to pierce my mind.  I was wronged at the first of the week, that was the ouie.  The ouches were because I replayed it over and over and over.  The person that did me wrong got more mileage out of the misdeed than they can ever know.
Who did the most wrong, me.  Me to me.  A lesson I keep taking over and over again; to the Tenth Power.





The Goddess Tarot ~ Kris Waldherr

Ominous

Anytime I draw the Ten of Swords, I cringe.  I do not have a good association with this card.  Yesterday somewhere late in the date my mood shifted to dark and dreary.  An ominous shroud of despair and fear started to settle on my shoulders and began leeching into my skin.  I shrugged a bit it of off and am holding it bay, but it creeps near to me like the shifting fog that rolls across the screen in horror movies.  It will get me if I do not make a move.  Freeze, Fright, or Flight?
The Sun has remained hidden behind a thick bank of clouds for the last five days and it remains so for the next several days and tomorrow a hundred percent certainty of rain and cold and gloom.  Whew wee, guess I better turn on my mood light and every other light in the house to keep those ominous thoughts at bay.



Sacred Sites Tarot

Oh My!

"When the querent gets this card the advice is that it is time to end whatever has been on their mind, or whatever issue they've been arguing or discussing. They have gone as far as they can with these thoughts or argument. Even if they could argue more or differently, everyone is tired of listening to them. It is also likely that dwelling on this issue has left the querent's mind weary, dull, dead. It is time for a new topic that will enliven the mind rather than keeping it pinned to the ground."

-Quoted straight from Aeclectic Tarot

I could not have summed it up better. Sometimes others words are more fitting than our own.

Rider Waite-Smith Tarot

Enough is enough

When I see the Ten of Swords a cloud of worry washes over and through me.  Weeks and months before my tornado trauma the RWS Ten of Swords kept making an appearance. 

I am better with that image and have only drawn it once since trauma, associated images from other decks, like this Ten of Words don't hold the same sway over me.  The authors of the deck and companion book gives us Disillusion: cause to realize that a believe or an ideal is false.  Point on or is on point? They also discuss that Owl flying above those swords, as an omen of dark times, mostly I think there is a mystery to owls because they belong to the night.  Some see owl as a portrayal of wisdom.
Maybe with their hoots of  'who who' we could see it as a moment of identity crisis and ask ourself/myself what is my confusion at this moment. I asked myself a question about an event today and this card says skip it; good enough form me.

The Sacred Circle Tarot - Anna Franklin & Paul Mason

Starting point

Well damn.

My two day Chariot ride brought me right back where I started.  A field of disillusion and discomfort.  The imagery of this Ten of Swords is much easier to deal with than the RWS ten of swords. This one helps me see mind over matter.  The owl and that one dominant sword, the sword of reason, truth, and action that we see in the Ace and the Queen of Swords will help me sort through and deal with all those rising thoughts and fears, that evidently I was trying to run away from in my Chariot rides. 
Wherever you go - there you are.









The Sacred Circle Tarot -  Anna Franklin & Paul Mason