Ten of Wands
burden · overwork · carrying too much · nearly home
Card art: Pamela Colman Smith, 1909, for A. E. Waite. Public domain.
The suit of Wands
In a few words
- burden
- overwork
- carrying too much
- nearly home
Ten wands in your arms, the town in sight. You are carrying too much, and you are almost there.
Upright
- Everything
- Ten wands in your arms, the town in sight. You are carrying too much, and you are almost there.
- Love
- One person carrying the relationship. Share the load or it breaks the back.
- Work
- Overwork, too many responsibilities. Finish what is yours; hand back what is not.
- Money
- Debts and obligations weighing heavy. Pay down; do not add.
- Myself
- You said yes to everything. Put some of it down; nobody asked you to carry it all.
A card of many significances, and some of the readings cannot be harmonized. I set aside that which connects it with honour and good faith. The chief meaning is oppression simply, but it is also fortune, gain, any kind of success, and then it is the oppression of these things. It is also a card of false-seeming, disguise, perfidy. The place which the figure is approaching may suffer from the rods that he carries. Success is stultified if the Nine of Swords follows, and if it is a question of a lawsuit, there will be certain loss.The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1911), p. 178
Reversed
- Everything
- Dropping the load, by choice or collapse. Or refusing help out of pride.
- Love
- Setting down a burden in the relationship. Or being crushed by one unspoken.
- Work
- Delegation at last, or burnout forcing it. Better the first.
- Money
- Relief from a debt, or a load that finally proves too heavy. Ask for terms.
- Myself
- Learning to let go of what was never yours to hold.
Contrarieties, difficulties, intrigues, and their analogies.The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1911), p. 178
The card, as Waite described it
A man oppressed by the weight of the ten staves which he is carrying.The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1911), p. 178
The plain-word meanings on this page were written for ShreeJyoti and are still under review.