The Tens in the Tarot: Meaning of the Number Ten and the Four Tens

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The Tens of the tarot speak of completion, overload, the end of a cycle and renewal. Here is the traditional meaning of each Ten and the mistakes to avoid.

Key points

Number	10
Keywords	Completion, end of a cycle, return to the beginning
Cards	Ten of Wands, Cups, Swords and Pentacles
Sephirah (Golden Dawn)	Malkhut, "kingdom" in the Kabbalah
Nearby major arcana	Wheel of Fortune, number 10
In the Marseille deck	Repeated emblems, no figures
In the Rider-Waite-Smith deck	One scene per card

The number in tarot tradition

Ten is a double number. It brings together the digits one and zero: the one starts again, the zero encloses it. In traditional numerology it is the number of fulfilment, of the closed cycle and of the return to the beginning. In many cultures it is linked to totality: ten fingers, ten commandments, the ten sephiroth of the Tree of Life in the Kabbalah (the Pythagorean tetractys, 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 = 10, is another expression of it).

The Golden Dawn (an English occult society of the late nineteenth century) links it to Malkhut, the "kingdom", the tenth sephirah, at the very bottom of the tree: matter, what is accomplished. In tarot, a Ten often indicates that a series is ending: the best (family, inheritance) or the worst (exhaustion, overload). No Ten is final: after the end, there is a new Ace. The tarot describes these passages without predicting them.

The four cards at a glance

Suit	Image (Rider-Waite-Smith)	Traditional meaning	Question to reflect on
Wands	A man bends under ten staves he carries toward a village	Overload, burden, responsibilities, completion	What can I set down or delegate?
Cups	A couple and two children under a rainbow of cups, in front of their house	Fulfilment, family harmony, a shared ideal	What truly fulfils me?
Swords	A figure lies face down, ten swords in its back, with dawn on the horizon	End of a cycle, exhaustion, it is all over	What has ended, and what can begin again?
Pentacles	An old man, a couple and a child under an arch, dogs, coins in a pattern	Inheritance, handing down, heritage, lasting stability	What do I want to pass on?

The scenes described are those of the Rider-Waite-Smith deck (1909). Other decks offer other images, but the number keeps the same tone.

Marseille or Rider-Waite-Smith?

In the Tarot de Marseille, the Tens are pip cards: ten emblems, a dense and ornate composition, highly symmetrical. No figures, but a sense of fullness, sometimes of saturation. In the Rider-Waite-Smith, the Tens are highly theatrical: the burdened man, the happy family, the pierced body, the great lineage. The Ten of Swords is the image that frightens most: ten blades in a back. Yet the scene takes place at twilight, and dawn is rising on the horizon. Many readers see in it the lowest point from which one can start again; it is never an announcement of violence. The Ten of Cups, for its part, is the card of an often idealised happiness: to be read as an ideal, not as a guaranteed state.

The number and the major arcana

Ten is the number of the Wheel of Fortune, major arcanum number 10: cycles, highs and lows, what turns. The minor Tens are "ends of the wheel": what the Ace promised reaches its term, for better or for worse. For the major arcana in general: the guide to the major arcana.

Reading this number in a spread

A Ten in a spread invites you to notice what is reaching its end. What has come to fruition? What has become too heavy? What am I ready to close in order to begin again elsewhere? Several Tens in the same spread often suggest an important passage, or an accumulation. They do not predict events.

If you read reversed cards, a reversed Ten is sometimes seen as a delayed ending, a burden that lightens, or an ideal that cracks. These are conventions. To practise: the three-card spread.

Beginner's mistakes

Taking the Ten of Swords for an announcement of drama: it is an image of an ending, with dawn breaking.
Believing the Ten of Cups promises a perfect life: it is an ideal of harmony.
Reading the Ten of Wands as a punishment: it is an overload, and the card invites you to lighten it.
Reducing the Ten of Pentacles to financial inheritance: it also speaks of handing down, roots and lineage.
Forgetting that the Ten leads to a new Ace: the cycle begins again.

Practice

Place the Ace and the Ten of the same suit side by side. What happened between the two? Then choose a suit that speaks to you and write, in ten lines, the story of a project of yours, from beginning to end, one line per number. It is a way to bring order to your thoughts, not to foresee the future. For what comes next, see the court cards, which complete each suit.