Ten of Swords
Astrology: Sun in Gemini | Element: Air | Season: Early Summer
Qing is the village’s only witch. Whenever disaster strikes, she dances a blessing ritual atop the sacred stone at the village gate. Days of relentless rain have flooded the ground, and she can only keep dancing on the stone—one day, two days, three days… for so long that the puddles below hold her moving reflection like a mirrored fate. “Perhaps this is the last dance,” she murmurs, staring at a dead butterfly floating in the water. Unable to pray the sun back, she will be offered to the gods tomorrow, pleading for a final forgiveness. She glances at the pure-white birds above her head, wishing her hands could become wings—wishing she could become a bird and fly into the sky.
Symbolism:
The Dancing Girl’s Shadow: A symbol of powerlessness and struggle, echoing the fallen figure in the Rider-Waite tradition. Here it emphasizes total defeat—effort and resistance cannot alter the outcome. The dance represents passion for life and defiance, but also sacred blessing, mirroring the traditional figure’s gesture.
The Butterfly: The butterfly sinking into water signifies the loss of all methods and means—an exhausted, helpless state. It also reflects the ritual dancer’s inner world and emotional condition.
The Birds: Ten birds serve as the ten symbolic swords—imprisoned thoughts and the yearning to break free. Their freedom is sharp and painful to witness, becoming the “swords” in her heart: a freedom she cannot reach.
The Pool of Water: An ending and a world being washed away—storm before sunlight, the darkness before dawn.
The Trees’ Reflection: Suggests inner desolation and struggle. It also implies that this is not nourishing rain, but a calamity that scours everything clean.
Upright:
Agony, ending, sacrifice, the darkness before dawn, rock bottom, loss, pressure, failure, the end of suffering.
Personality: Bearing immense pressure and pain, standing at the threshold of a complete transformation, possessing the courage to be reborn from ruin, keeping a final spark of hope in despair, accepting an inevitable ending, holding the potential to rise beyond suffering.
Relationship: A relationship ending completely, an irreversible breakup, major betrayal, a painful but necessary separation, fully releasing the past, making space for new beginnings.
Career/Studies: A project collapsing entirely, a major career turning point, the end of an old job, the conclusion of an academic phase, unavoidable workplace change, the necessity of starting over from the ground up.
Finances: A complete shift in one’s financial structure, enduring major losses, the end of an old financial pattern, bankruptcy or debt crisis, rebuilding finances from zero.
Advice: Change is unavoidable. This pain and failure are not meaningless—accept the certainty of an ending and understand it is the precondition for renewal. Hold on to hope in the dark; dawn is approaching.
Reversed:
Change, catching one’s breath, a brief advantage, a thin chance of survival, relief, gradual improvement, passing through the low point, taking action.
Personality: Unable to accept the finality of reality, clinging to what has already passed, circling inside pain, lacking the courage to begin again, falling into a victim mindset, avoiding a necessary ending.
Relationship: Entanglement with a relationship that has already ended, obsession that cannot be released, a pattern of mutual torment, prolonged suffering from refusing to cut ties, maintaining a relationship in name only.
Career/Studies: Forcing a project to continue when it should end, hesitation around career transition, delaying the closure of an academic stage, ongoing torment in workplace hardship, missing the timing for necessary reform.
Finances: A financial crisis that continues to worsen, hesitating when it is time to cut losses, the old financial model barely surviving, delaying the resolution of debt problems.
Advice: Past wounds can help you see the truth clearly. If the environment cannot be changed, then the right act is to decide an ending with courage—stop prolonging the pain. Accept the necessity of transformation and step forward into a new beginning.