Tens
Water 10 
Wood 10 
Air 10
Fire 10 
Earth 10 
Metal 10
X TimeTEN - Ten, Ten, start again. One is a kind of a seed number as it holds the essence of a suit. In Tarot, One is never actually the start of anything; it's more an indication of what that something is going to be. It usually takes Two to get something started, even if that second party is an aspect of yourself. Zero, the number of The Fool, brings with it the promise of new beginnings, the suggestion that something is afoot, but not necessarily at the door quite yet. So when One and Zero get together in a suit, we have a situation where something's coming...and we get a sense of what that something might be bringing with it.
Ten is a mature number, though; it's not just starting out on its path. After all, it's been through One through Nine to get where it is. Ten knows. So it's full not only of promise, but of skill in the area as well.
WATER - Billowing clouds, filled with the potential for a downpour make the perfect image to represent an emotional event in the offing. Traditionally this card is associated with great joy and celebration. It is, as the promise of rain usually is, a good omen. Rain, after all, is what makes the crops grow and the appearance of this card is, therefore, considered to be auspicious.
WOOD - Pine cone carry the seeds of future growth and are, therefore, another ideal image for a Ten card. In the suit of personal transformation, Ten asseverates a forthcoming situation with the potential for individual development at a profound level.
Since the suit of Wood is also associated with support, the upcoming situation need not be viewed as an unpleasant possibility but rather as a challenge to be met with confidence and optimism, as a step that one is ready to ascend.
AIR - Once we hit the ceiling with the numbered cards in Air, we find ourselves in a thin atmosphere. Reliance on the mind as a device for guidance is rarely as useful as it seems. The mind is a device for calculation and tabulation. It is also the place where doubt lives. All you need do to get out of your mind and into a place where you can respond appropriately, is, essentially, to open your eyes and connect with the real world which is easier said than done when you are lost so deep in the trees that you can see neither sun nor horizon to give you any hint of where that real world might be.
The forests of the world provide us with the oxygen we breathe but if you've ever wandered into a primal forest with no paths cut and no compass, it will seem more like it is out to capture you than like a place that is there to support you. But the mind has many very useful functions. It is the mind that re-minds you to take a compass into the woods in the first place. So when Air 10 shows itself , know that it is just there to re-mind you of itself, of your mind, and the possibility that you may now need to open your eyes and return to reality.
FIRE - Lightning! The Fire God. Lightning, compelling yet so dangerous, reliable in its unpredictability as well as in its useful nature. Lightning clears the woods and its appearance in tarot represents a clearing in the forest of the mind, opening it to the possibly unique communication of the Spirit Self.
Fire 10 is nothing you can prepare for, nothing you can necessarily even imagine. It is the spark of inspiration, of taking spirit in. Fire 10 will appear in a reading to advise you not to discount a sudden, unbidden revelation or a wild, passing insight. It says, "Don't think too much about this; just run with it."
EARTH - Earth, of course, is the most stable of the elements, the most solid, the most immovable...but, ah, when she does move...look out. Everything has a beginning and that beginning, for us mortals, is usually either a thought or a response to a stimulus. That's what Ones are for, to indicate the source of things. Tens, on the other hand, take that One, add the Zero - otherwise only found in the Higher Arcana - and make things move.
Earth is a female element. Tens are happy in female elements because female elements are more comfortable in general. Water feels good - maybe too good, making it a tad dangerous but you have to keep your distance from the male element of Fire. Womanly Wood is natural, growing and changing almost effortlessly, while Metal usually has to be melted or hammered into submission to make it useful to us.And Air, Earth's perfect opposite in a something vs nothing kind of way, just stirs things up, no matter where it goes. Consequently, Tens, the ultimate amplification of Ones and the first foray into double digits, are simply going to feel better when the activities they represent feel better to begin with...and what feels better than bodies in the material world?
That said, that's a volcano right there, on Earth 10...what's to like about that? Well, ask the folks who plant in the rich soils that surround them. A wise card, Earth 10 will remind you that while you are reaping the benefits of the good life, you just never know...do you? So Earth 10 reminds you to gather the rosebuds while you can, to enjoy the pleasures it promises will be delivered to you with constant gratitude for the moment in which you find yourself.
METAL - Metal is, essentially, the suit of mastery over the vagaries of doubt and inconsistency because will power is not something that all of us are born with; it comes naturally to only a few. Every card in the suit of metal is a variation on the theme of getting something done and pushing yourself past your normal.
When Metal Ten shows up, you might as well just take a deep breath and prepare for work, because be it mental or physical, you can know that you will be called upon to go farther or faster or with more acuity than than would be your usual approach to a situation. Something's coming, as the song says, something big.
AETHER - X TIME - In the Higher Arcana, Ten has a chance to be all that it is, to be the ultimate start-something-new card because Aether is, after all, the suit of the Spirit. Here, Ten opens the door to all the double digits that follow and everything that they bring along.
X Time signifies that the time has, indeed, come: time for a change; time to move on; time to put something behind you and face facts. X Time can touch on any - or all! - aspects of your life and likely will introduce you to some things, people, opportunities or ideas you've not met before.
The old tarot card, The Wheel of Chance, coming from an era when humanity in general existed in an even more egregious class system than it now does, carried with it an aura of "What goes up, must come down," because at that time, one's life was often in the hands of someone else and when you are not in control of your own life - just as when you feel that you are not in control of your own life - the threat of a downward trend hangs over ones head like a scimitar.
X, seen through the eyes of a society which more clearly grasps the role of individual power, becomes Time, relating to the inevitable fact of the passages of life and the opening of a door to a whole new experience.
Comments