The Ten of Swords

So much drama.

(Ink on Paper; see more in the Tarot Gallery)

Pollack writes about this card that “it signifies more of a reaction to problems than the problems themselves.”

It’s hard to not react. It’s hard to not take things personally when it feels like the things (often quite scary things) are very much personal. I struggle with this every day, mostly because I'm a dramatic little bastard and my first reaction to unpleasantness is mutual unpleasantness. I can damn well out-unpleasant anybody, just watch me!

But now I know the “punch it in the face until it plays nice” approach to life is not only egregiously stupid, it also just doesn't work. Ever. In a twist that I find very upsetting, there are also very rarely clear wrong and right sides. As you may have deduced, this is one thing that gets in the way of punching solutions.

When one is hoping for a simple solution (e.g. “I am right and good, you are wrong and bad, ergo I punch you and win) and finds that a more nuanced approach to looming threat is necessary, one is bound to… take that badly. Maybe get a little woe is me. Maybe get a little “toss oneself in the pond to drown with a bunch of swords that are totally unnecessary except in a tortured-soul aesthetic sense.”

It’s mostly the card of unnecessary suffering. Life is bad enough: you only need one sword to die, don’t get all dramatic and add a bunch more.