THE TEN OF SWORDS

SUFFERING: THE CAPACITY TO ENDURE

THE TEN OF SWORDS

Suffering:  The Capacity to Endure.

No need to fear the 10 of swords.  The capacity to endure is one of the building blocks of our existence.

From the moment of conception, it is said that the race begins.  The male sperm is copious and has more speed but a lesser lifespan of just 24 hours whereas female sperm is less copious with slower speed but has more endurance and can last 3 days at least.  On the day of ovulation, the male will likely get there first.  However, two days before or after ovulation, the female lasts longer and has more chance. 

An old Irish wives’ tale bantered around Ireland at one time stated that consuming bananas and spinach gave boys a chance: something to do with potassium; while apples and cheese or milk produced girls: something to do with calcium…. But as I say, this may or may not be true.  No matter what, it is a competitive race.  Is that not what life is all about?  And victory without loss is rare.  However, the Victory of accomplishment in divine knowledge is no loss of spirit nor does it create loss to any other individual.  It is contagious and may enhance others who are in contact with it.

The Ten of Swords is all about the capacity to endure and to claim victory to endure karma, not as a ten-fold sword blow but as an initiation of inner soul strength so that the effect is more like a ten-needle acupuncture that heals but does not cause deep pain.  The only endurance in life is what we know as Karma… “as you sow, so must you reap.”  It is about ‘cause’ and ‘effect’.   The entire Minor Arcana in the Tarot has to do with changes and the cause and effect of everything in one’s life, levels of karma from one to ten in each suit, and then the hierarchy of the court cards, the ultimate movers between the material and spiritual realms, the seen and unseen, what we suffer or not, being in the world of action.

Therefore, tens need to be looked at carefully.  Many fear the 10 of swords.  It is tenacious, there is no doubt about that, but must we fear tenacity or endurance?  There is a special strengthening that happens, whether it is the immune system fighting against something or the body building resistance to viral or bacterial attacks.  All little children prepare themselves by enduring childhood diseases, colds, fevers, flu, etc; in order to give immunity later.  The Ten of Swords as I see it, is therefore an initiation card, a way of immunising oneself for any ongoing journey.  It is temporary and the Power to Face is imminent.

SAINT BRIGID

Some of the early Saints such as Saint Brigid, endured deliberate penances of suffering, by omitting to eat for periods of time, or withstanding elements of cold to strengthen the body.  Some monks wore hair vests, or resorted to self-flagellation in one early Irish establishment. I knew of one monk in an Abbey near Dublin who had to display complete obedience and was asked to plant a row of cabbages upside down to prove this. The cabbages were changed afterwards. He also had to endure five years of silence to reach a state of detachment from the world but oneness with his God. He left after ten years to do charitable work and teach, but he was one of the gentlest most intelligent of souls with a calmness of spirit one could feel while in his presence.

Leprosy was around in early Ireland, and Brigid spent many days feeding and looking after lepers who were ostracized from society.  She was fearless and built up her own faith to protect herself while caring for the sick.  She was one of the early herbalists and taught herself skills of healing.  One of her life stories (there were at least six of them) gave evidence of this.

She chose the Beatitude of Mercy to be her abiding spiritual strength.  It became part of her so that what she touched physically reacted to her deep faith.  St. Brigit (the spellings differ in her life stories) touched some wood that supported an altar, and which had been long dried and in use.  The Bishop Maccelle blessed her at this altar and observed the wood becoming green as if newly cut.  When that church was destroyed by fire at a later period, this portion of the altar alone escaped and did not burn.  The Bishop spoke of eight Beatitudes, the steps to a heavenly kingdom, and Mercy was the one chosen by Brigit.  She said that whoever conquers one virtue to perfection, they will possess every other.

The Saint’s hospitality was often taxed to the uttermost.  On one occasion, when a number of ecclesiastics were visiting guests, she had only one cow to supply the needs of the whole house.  Such little deficiencies were soon remedied by her.  The one cow gave as much milk as three cows had given formerly, and all necessary wants were satisfied. 

CRUACHAN BRIGH-EILE Bog of Allen, Extinct Volcano, Co. Offaly.

We are not sure where her first foundation was established but it is conjectured to have been on the eastern side of the Hill of Croghan, near Tyrodl’s Pass, in the King’s County…. In the Bog of Allen.  This hill is an extinct volcano.  The Church in which she made her religious profession was called Cruachan Brigh-eile.  Cogitosus, the monk who scribed an early version of her life said it was renowned for pilgrimages and miracles in his day; but the site was never satisfactorily identified.  There are sacred wells all over different counties of Ireland dedicated to the Saint.  The Sisters of Mercy, all over the world now are Brigidine nuns, Six Bermondsey Sisters of Mercy, including Sister Mary Bernard Dickson, an English-born New Zealand nun who became a Reverend Mother, went to Crimea to work under Florence Nightingale treating the soldiers of war in dreadful conditions.

It was said that Brigid spent time as a child at the house of a Druid and had many wisdom and nature teachings, and the Druidesses who went there became her first nuns. They looked after horses and used to race them. Kildare is still one of the horse breeding places in Ireland, and it was said she had an Oak church there (Kil and Dare…Church of Oak).  

It has not been all roses though, and far from the days of Brigid, as a later Sister of Mercy at one teaching convent in the late 20^th Century was considered to not have much mercy in the overuse of corporal punishment and strictures verging on emotional abuse by using ‘fear’ on the caring and teaching of children.  Many children did benefit from good care in other convents. This punishment was not something practised by the odd nun, because in most schools, whether Protestant or Roman Catholic, throughout the world, teachers elicited the use of beating with the cane or birch, paddle or slipper, to try to control children. 

I remember on one occasion, in Primary School, being subjected to the cane on the open palm for forgetting my poetry lines!  The electric shock that travels to the armpit is not to be desired!  Then to be subjected to the writing of dozens of lines of poetry afterwards with stinging fingers is almost an impossible task.  It did not deter me from loving poetry, although to this day I have no wish to memorise the lines, (perhaps as an act of rebellion).

My late husband Robin who was always joking around, told me he was beaten by nuns in Australia for disrupting class by making the others laugh. It didn’t deter his wit or his love for comedic farce. Even in his last days, he got relief and strength from watching films of Charlie Chaplin, Norman Wisdom, The Three Stooges, The Goons, Spike Milligan, and also Jack Black in Gulliver’s Travels, one of the last DVDs he watched and enjoyed.  

DIVINATION:

So, what does this have to do with the Ten of Swords?  In the divination of this card on its own, because we know that the meanings may change with whatever cards are surrounding it, there is a degree of expected punishment for deeds done or not done.    Flouting of the rules, carelessness, ill-spent time, disobedience, initiation, and a certain amount of self-judgement, all of which can come under the swords.       

The Power of Tolerance and the Power to Face are the two soul powers needed for this reading.  Being merciful and having kindliness towards the self and others is imperative, regardless of what happens. 

“Those who blame, complain and compare sing a long sad song that rarely ends easily.” A teaching from a Yoghini called Dadiji.

This portal of understanding through sufferance, not lamenting, but endurance, creates strength of spirit in whatever way possible, even through humour, (English spelling) not only for the self but to enable one to have loving but detached observance to endure scenes that may take place in the environment, not with humour but purely as observance of a drama. Of course one can try to help alleviate the pain of others and rescue souls but with a certain calmness of soul that transmits to them. It takes courage and the Power to Face.

I grew up in the sporadic bombing and war outbreaks in Northern Ireland, and observed a certain kind of dark humour and wit that prevailed there, after shock subsided, perhaps a way of conquering fear and suspicion, or needing to feel the relief of survival after near misses. “Ah, it wasn’t my time yet!”  “There must have been an angel on my shoulder.” “We mustn’t let the devil vomit in our kettle.” “Beware of strangers, they have a nasty habit of becoming relatives.” As I said, it gave way to dark wit throughout the province.

In my Vedic Tarot the image is of a person kneeling between the portal of two oak trees, his hand and his head resting against one and his foot against the other. The swords are the life-weight of Karma endured on his back, showing that what has been perpetrated is behind him, possibly in the deep past and not of just this lifetime.  The spine is like the tail of the brain, and it is the reason I put the swords on the back rather than the usual tarot image of the person on his back, prostrate, with swords wounding him in the front.  The strength of one oak is given to the outstretched hand to receive, and as support to the head for the brain to have the strength to decide; and the twin oak on the other side is for the feet to get strength to make a move. He kneels in deference to the strength of the Earth and to the Ancestral Tree of Life. At this stage, dependence on Hope is an illusion that clouds clarity, and to end any kind of delusion, he must forget past or future.  For survival, Hope needs to change to Faith, the only dispeller of doubt, to change the way to look at the present, and what is looked at in the present will change.  (It is proven in quantum theory that what is ‘looked at’ does change). In the ten of swords it takes thought and action.  10 takes us to 11 and in old Romany numerals, all subtle changes in one’s life happens with double figures, at ages of 11, 22, 33, 44, 55, 66, 77, 88, 99, etc;  The Ten of Swords always leads to the next gateway, the 11, shown here by my twin oak trees and with the querent kneeling between these two oaks.  Oppression, the sudden unexpected lightning strike of Karma is the great mover to simplify life again, to make sudden changes in emotional, intellectual, willpower, monetary, and spiritual paths.

SANSKRIT:

Sufferance: giving strength through Duhkha.  (standing unstable).

Tolerance: A boy kicks the mango tree and the tree still gives him mangoes.

The Knowledge of great conflict and suffering of karma, whether for the self, nation, or the world, causes a feeling of anguish and hopelessness.  When humans are caught in the world of transient objects, they become attached to them, and there is no escape from suffering when there is loss.  In some yogic ascetic traditions, practice of detachment is made through austerity, restraint, and renunciation to achieve repentance and enlightenment. We possess nothing and it all belongs to the Source of all things, gifted and created for us to juggle with during our existence in the material world. Once that thought is there, we can let go of anxiety and the feeling of ‘mine’.

There are three types of suffering:

1.    The suffering of suffering.

2.    The suffering of change.

3.    The suffering of existence.

The Buddhist Dukkha of suffering is one of the Four Noble Truths and three states of existence. The prefix Du (bad or difficult) and the root Kha (empty or hole) .  This term is found in the Upanishads and Buddhist texts.  It is temporary uneasiness and the bumpy ride in the transient world of changes of time and elements.

HEBREW:

Daleth: (Door)

This ancient letter was originally a triangle with a tiny opening, but the value is 4.  In the Qabbala, the supernal triangle of Kether, Chokmah and Binah the trio of power: Crown of Light, Wisdom and Understanding.  There is a fourth subtle region, a doorway that lies between Wisdom and Understanding and that is known as Daath, the doorway of Knowledge, the Known and Unknown. Wisdom is stable, Understanding is stable, but Knowledge is transient and always changing.  One can only pass through it.  Daleth is the door that makes movement possible through these spheres of darkness and light to absorb and endure the massive teachings of life.  Out of this comes original thought and all matter.

 OGHAM:

Duir: (Oak, Door)

The protective doorway to the mysteries is hidden from mortal eyes, where the suffering of karmic oppression causes an initiation of the soul.  Acceptance of a life is made before entrance, before birth, and a Gudrij lock is put on the mind, so we forget previous existence, (sometimes remembered but most often not) and forget our purpose or quest in the world of duality and suffering, until the eye of remembrance is opened, and entrance is granted to look into the soul realm.  The lock is released, and the Great Work begins for the transformation of the self first and then all.

MUSICAL INSTRUMENT:

Triangle and Chimer (stick):

The triangle is the ancient letter form of Daleth and spiritually represents the triangular force of Creation.  The sound is like a bell that awakens the Crown Chakra, the Ajna (third eye) and the Ears (Receptors, Hearing and Balance). To hear the Word.

Dwina***