Ten of Swords

Ten swords in the pattern of the Tree of Life, with the central sword shattered by the others; the heart is pierced and the sky is breaking.

Malkuth, Kingdom, in Yetzirah, the world of formation. The Kingdom, the tenth Sephirah, the world as it actually is: matter, the body, the finished thing that has fallen away from its source and yet contains it. Malkuth is the Daughter, the final Heh. The Tens are Malkuth in the four worlds and show the element carried to its end, for good or ill; the Princesses belong here.

Malkuth in the world of Air: the element carried to its end and fixed, and Air fixed can only break. The Sun in the last decan of Gemini lights the wreckage clearly.

The Sun in the third decan of Gemini (20°–30°, about Jun 11–20). The Sun is the centre, the heart, vitality, identity and the light by which everything else is seen. On the Tree it is Tiphareth; among the trumps it is the Sun, the two children dancing in the light of the New Aeon.

Gemini is mutable Air: the twins, the mind that sees two of everything, speech and exchange. Mercury rules it. Its trump is the Lovers. The trump of Gemini is The Lovers.

This decan is ruled by the Queen of Cups, whose arc runs from 21° Gemini to 20° Cancer. The two Shem angels of the decan are Lauviah and Caliel.

The crystallised Actual: the cycle complete, matter as it is known, the end that contains the next beginning. Malkuth, the Kingdom. The Tens carry each element to its extreme; Fortune is trump X.

Thinking at its limit; the mind's structure collapsed by the weight of its own reasoning. The Swords are usually read as the thinking function in Jung's typology, an interpretive convention rather than a text of Jung's.

Rider-Waite calls the suit Swords. Its small cards carry scenes; the Thoth small cards carry the suit emblems arranged geometrically, with the keyword printed at the bottom and the colours of their Sephirah and decan. The Golden Dawn title (Lord of Ruin) is shared by both traditions.