Ten of Wands
Wands
How This Card Is Derived
Papus gives no separate description of this card. It is derived from his system: Wands is Yod (י), the active, originating principle, acting in Atziluth, the archetypal world; the number 10 is He final of the third series, full realization — the suit spent, and the seed of the suit that follows. The meaning below is that combination read out — the active, originating principle taken at its 10th term — not a quotation from him.
Upright
The suit spent. Ten staves carried at once, the town in sight, the bearer unable to see over the load. Papus's tenth term completes and seeds — and what the active principle completes with is the full weight of everything it started. The card is not about failure; the enterprise worked, and this is what a working enterprise weighs. Burden is the shape success takes in Atziluth.
Reversed
The load put down — reversed is relief or abandonment, and only the surrounding cards say which. Or more staves picked up at the door, because handing any of them on would mean admitting the enterprise is bigger than one person.
Correspondences
- Suit
- Wands — Yod (י), Atziluth, the archetypal world
- Suit principle
- the active, originating principle
- Number
- 10 — He final of the third series
- Numeric role
- full realization — the suit spent, and the seed of the suit that follows
In a Spread
At the commencement, the matter begins already overloaded. In opposition, a weight of prior commitments blocking anything new. At equilibrium everything is being carried by one party. As the result: completion, carried — and in Papus's decade, the handing on to the next suit.