Tarot Card Comparison: The Thoth Tarot- 10 of Swords: RUIN & The B.O.T.A. Tarot- 10 of Swords

All is the Mind, thought is the first material the mind works with; therefore, each Sephira on the Tree of life is progressively more and more condensed thought, woven into fractals of imagined self; I AM. Hence, all is psychosomatic, including the "crystallization of thought" as personal identity; a "Me".

The 10 of Swords, card indicates a new hope, a new direction born out of ruin and despair and/or the beginning of recovery from illness. Thus, the necessary ruin to start something new from past failure. Therefore the 10 of Swords card represents a mental conclusion, long sought, with much ruinous thinking becoming a mental struggle which has rent asunder our plans and left us in an insomniacs mental paradigm. Here is a hopeful recovery from a psychosomatic illness.

The 10 of Swords implies that one may have reached a conclusion that things are just not going to work out in two areas of one's life.

The realization of ruin, may cause you to feel a deep fear of "things not Working out" which only insures that they don't, but this is a necessary realization so that one stops producing emotional force as one tries to hold together what has already fallen apart. Let go, and let the inner self take over.

The Astrological sign of this card is Sun in Gemini. Individuals who have their Sun in Gemini, are very gifted at synchronizing paradoxes, polarities, and/or oppositions thus they are able to look at all aspects of a situation, balancing the positive and negative aspects. This need to balance everything, can also produce a deep heart-felt fear about the issues of finance, relationships, and creative initiative, where one really doesn't have the authority to balance such. Hence, one takes responsibility for what one isn't responsible, such as an empath who may unknowingly take on the illness of others. Since illness can be a personal identity misconception, empathetic people must be careful for they may be taking on the ill person's karma; a karma necessary for the individual to correct as a progress towards personal discernment and wisdom. To further illustrate this scattering of reason, since this card is ruled by the Sun in Gemini.  Gemini's mercurial-airy quality disperses the rays of the Sun and disrupts the harmonious and stable energy, as does the atmosphere of Earth. Remember that Wisdom is from the correction of error; "to see error, in our self identity and personally correct it", produces a profound wisdom necessary to further personal developement. So teaching a person to heal themselves, is often a more powerful teaching, than healing them by making yourself ill in their place. 

With powerful facilities of any kind, we have the Great Creative Pendulum of the Imaginative Mind (The Divine Creative) that can swing from positive motion to negative motion right at the apogee of creative endeavors. This is especially true with Gemini.  When we are powerfully imaginative, we must also exercise powerful discernment, concentrating our thought-forms on what we are doing rather than what we fear could happen.  By thinking joyfully of the journey towards our goal, rather then concentrating stress to achieve it, one is avoiding the negative swing right when we can see successful endeavor looming past the hills of labor and fear loosing it before we get there.

The Hermetic Qabalah Thoth- Ten's, in every suit, represent Malkuth-Kingdom- which is the lowest Sephira on the Tree of Life; lowest as in position of condensed thought, not in value.

Malkuth is the Earth, the sacred physical world, and the Ten of Swords, represents the unadulterated energy of mind, confined to the lowest microwave frequency-(most condensed) consciousness on earth.

 The animal survival brain, is as personal as thought can get. This self absorbed persona can be the Ruin of all Hu-man thought, which is impersonal enough to "see beyond the person".[ Hu-is Mandarin for "god" and Man, comes from the Hindu-Manas, meaning "Mind"], hence the survival mind interferes with Image-making, and/or Imagination, the creative god-mind. Here the survival ego, is ruining all mental progress with ruinous thought.

Hence, The Ten of Swords, represents reason gone mad, the logic of lunatics, or for the most part, the reasoning of philosophers who divorce their reason from reality.

The position of the Sword Hilts, are as the Sephiroth on the Tree of Life. However, the central Sword, which represents the Sun ("Heart", Soul/Christ-Buddha intelligence), is shattered by Swords 1 through 5, as well as, by swords 7-9 .  The Tenth sword represents the intellect with it's moral qualities shattered as well. Thus, we know the 10 of Swords is depicting Intellectual Ruin, by baser and/or lower  thought.

The heart, which also represents the Higher Thought of the Psyche (Soul) that is pierced and in ruins and therefore, dampening down, weakening, and corrupting the creative impulse. The Ten of Swords, therefore, consuls the personality to purge the brain of unworthy thoughts and ideas, that corral the creative impulse so that it putrefies into malice.

As you may have gleaned from previous paragraphs, the number 10 is the culmination of the unmitigated energy of the idea. In this case its "all Mental" and shows reason run mad; as Crowley put it in his Book Of Thoth, the 10 of Swords represents:"a ramshackle riot of soulless mechanism. It represents the logic of philosophers and lunatics and for the most part, it is reason divorced from reality".

For instance, the philosopher says,"Thou shalt not kill." which is divorced from reality. Reality states that we must kill (even vegetation) to eat and a Mother and Father must sometimes kill to protect the family, for without family---there is no future! So the

statement "thous shalt not kill", should say, "Thou should not murder for the visions of ambition, ( of Politicians and theologians etc.) be they personal or governmental nor for the "greater good". For any man and woman worth their salt, will kill to protect their family and to eat! That is expected in this Natural Universe where "life eats itself to stay alive"!  But to kill for "utopian visions", is rationale gone mad. Therefore there is a fine line between philosopher and lunatic; between genus and insanity.

The Ten of Swords, is shown as rampant disassembly (fractal coming apart in the background), because as stated, it is also ruled by the Sun in Gemini. This placement makes the mercurial nature of the Sun diffused, and scattered which disrupts the harmonious nature of energy. Harmony is now discord.

 As before stated, The Thoth display of the Ten swords are interesting in that hilts are shown in the form of the Sephiroth, while the points (1-5 and 7-9) shatter the central sword (number 6) . Six is Tiphareth, the Central Sun, The Heart of the Christ or Soul conscious; child of Chokma- Binah. This implies the ruin of intellect and even of all mental and moral qualities; as a disassembly of the personality. Hence the 10 of Swords is a personality Death card, more so than the Key 13-Death card, as that card is mostly about spiritual transformation of the Soul. Therefore the 10 of Swords card represents  a very negative mind set, that must be changed for any further growth in character and that is also necessary to heal psychosomatic disease. This is a total "Lizard brain"  fantasy based on, fear of being wrong, fear of pain, fear of discomfort and death, that makes one strike out, blaming others through a process of identity transference, before any reason to do so is presented.

The B.O.T.A.  Tarot, 10 of Swords, displays a three sword triangle Above, representing the Upper Supernal Triangle of the Hermetic Qabalah.

The center, is formed of a square of 4 swords, representing the World of Form, with a triangle beneath, representing the "lower mind of form".  All swords are in the yellow color assigned to the element of Air/Mind.

Here, is a subtle reminder that the "self-conscious" is merely a "self-reflection" of the Greater Mind. 

This card alone, is ill-dignified; However, if the accompanying cards are all well dignified, this is a  1 week or 1 month card of indignity, and the personality is well aware of the need for a change in perspective.

Therefore the positive of this 10 card reminds us:

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