Artemis

Swords ยท Air

Ten of Swordsfor Virgo ยท Work and Career

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 ยท 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
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AirElement
Thoughts, words, and conflict. In tarot: Swords.
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Ten of Swords for Virgo in Work and Career

The Analyst

Swords are the air suit, so the Ten of Swords sits in Libra. Libra sits directly beside Virgo, the one relationship a sign cannot see clearly because it is too close to get any distance on. What it asks for is this: write the sentence down and stop rewriting it. The difficulty is noticing it is being asked at all. Upright, it is complete, which is not automatically the same as good.

When reading about work through a Virgo lens, the Ten of Swords says that you feel like work is the place you prove you belong, something that has to be done correctly or not at all, and a way to disappear into usefulness (or into the work itself). This has either led to you being the person things fall apart without, or to your burnout becoming a kind of quiet protest. You have not asked yourself what you actually want from this work, only what you think you should want from it. The Virgo blind spot in it is the feeling of being useless, or of having wasted time on something that didn't hold up.

In practice that can look like an email that has been avoided. Whatever form it takes, it is completing, possibly past the point it was useful.

Somewhere else?

RelationshipSelfHealthWealthMy Future

Keep the thread

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

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