Artemis

Swords · Air

Ten of Swordsfor Leo · Self and Identity

Ten of Swords tarot card

"The worst already happened. Now what?"

Six quick picks first, then your reading

On the card

A prostrate figure, pierced by all the swords belonging to the card. Swords represent thoughts and ten represents the end of a chapter. Together this card means the end of something you've been struggling with and grief for who you were when you started this journey.

Upright
Rock BottomPainful EndingBetrayalNew Dawn

You are facing an ending (maybe of a relationship, maybe a job, perhaps cutting ties with someone). You've struggled and thought about what to do and how to fix things, but you were unable to salvage things while still remaining true to yourself. Grieve what you lost (innocence, respect for a friend, a relationship) and hold space for what might grow from the space you have cleared in your mind.

Reversed

You are unwilling to let go of something that is holding you back-- perhaps a relationship or job that meets some need but doesn't fulfill you completely. You must trust in yourself that you can get through a tough situation and come out stronger. Self love and trust are critical. Future you is looking out for you.

Its place in the deck.

Minor ArcanaNumber card
One of the 56 Minor Arcana. They are about what is happening in ordinary life right now. Each belongs to one of four suits, numbered Ace to Ten, plus four court cards.
SuitSwords · Air
Swords are the suit of Air: mind and language. A Swords card is always, underneath, about what you think, and the story you keep retelling yourself.
NumberTen
The numbers tell a story inside each suit, from a seed at the Ace to the full expression at Ten. Ten is the full expression: complete, and sometimes carried past the point it was useful.

Where it shows up.

In the stars
🜁︎
AirElement
Thoughts, words, and conflict. In tarot: Swords.
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Ten of Swords for Leo in Self and Identity

The Creator

Swords are the air suit, so the Ten of Swords sits in Libra. Libra sextiles Leo, which is help that has to be taken up rather than help that arrives. What it asks for is this: write the sentence down and stop rewriting it. Leo is perfectly capable of that, which is exactly why not doing it needs a better excuse. Upright, it is complete, which is not automatically the same as good.

When reading about yourself through a Leo lens, the Ten of Swords says that you feel like your image is the thing you are always refining, something that could always be more impressive (or more real), and the constant distance between who you are and who you appear. This has either built genuine self-awareness through the practice of refinement, or left you exhausted from maintaining two different people. You have been so focused on who you think you should be that you haven't checked in with who you actually are. The Leo blind spot in it is being ordinary, being forgotten, being the one no one thought to invite, being seen doing something mediocre.

In practice that can look like a loop that finally breaks, or seeing your own pattern in writing. Whatever form it takes, it is completing, possibly past the point it was useful.

Somewhere else?

WorkRelationshipHealthWealthMy Future

Keep the thread

Artemis remembers what you asked, and tells you when something comes back around.

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