MINOR ARCANA

Ten of Wands Tarot Meanings

The Ten of Wands is the last few steps to get us to where we want to be and can often indicate a need for a helping hand so that we can reach the finish line. Often this card can come up when we are carrying more than we need to and shows us how we can benefit from asking for a little bit of help and support, either from others or from external energy.

The Ten of Wands is our final card within the wands and holds all the experience we’ve collected along the way, hence the big bundle of wands. This card leads right after the exhaustion of the Nine of Wands, so this card can be seen as a very empowering card, showing how we overcame those obstacles in order to persevere and achieve what we always planned to achieve.

Ten of Wands Upright Meanings

In the upright position, the Ten of Wands shows our full potential, it reminds us of what we are truly capable of and asks us to keep that in mind for future journeys. Some of the key meanings of the Ten of Wands are:

Full potential
Powerful
Priorities
Wisdom
Need assistance

I always like to use a bit of visualisation when this card comes up, seeing myself trying to carry all those wands to the small town we see in the distance on the Rider Waite-Smith Tarot deck. I think about how hard it is to do, what could make it easier, and all the things I’ve learned as I’ve collected all those wands.

Ten of Wands Reversed Meanings

In the reversed position, the Ten of Wands represents the struggle, the burnout and the heaviness of having to carry all those wands ourselves. Some of the main reversed meanings of the Ten of Wands are:

Burnout
Lack of progress
Responsibility
Burden
Struggle

I see this card come up a lot when I’m reading for business owners and entrepreneurs because we are more likely to have this ‘I’ll do it myself’ kind of mentality. Although when we do tasks ourselves we have more control over the outcome, we can also jeopardize the quality of the job at hand. The Ten of Wands reversed perfectly represents this idea of spreading yourself too thin and not getting as far as you could if you asked for help or paced yourself better.

Reading Ten of Wands in a Tarot Spread

When the Ten of Wands appears it can either be a sign to push that last little bit in order to achieve your goal, or it can be a sign that you won’t make it on your own. The tens in the tarot often represent the completion and celebration of reaching the end of that suit, so with the Ten of Wands, it’s about how we can round off this wands journey in the best way possible. It may be that in order to really close this wand chapter we have to accept that we need support.

Asking for help or admitting to yourself that you’ve taken on too much can be daunting and often feels more like a failure than an actual failure. It’s in these times that we have to remind ourselves that we’re only human and everyone has limitations.

Ten of Wands as An Invitation

As an invitation, the Ten of Wands asks us to look at how we can relieve some of the pressure, what new routes we could take to make this next section of our journey a lighter one.

For Ten of Wands, this invitation could be the following:

An invitation to explore your full potential and see where it could take you
An invitation to assess why you’re not making as much progress as you thought you would
An invitation to look at areas where you struggle and how you could make them easier for yourself

Ten of Wands as Sage Advice

The Ten of Wands advice centres on responsibility and prioritisation. It is a card that reminds us to look at the bigger picture and compartmentalize our energy so that we can sustain it for longer.

Some advice Ten of Wands may offer is:

Stop trying to give everything your all, choose the highest priority tasks and give them all your focus in order to make them a success
You are capable of more than you are giving yourself credit for
There is a difference between struggling on because something is difficult and struggling on in order to make yourself a martyr

Ten of Wands as a Lesson

As a lesson, the Ten of Wands can be a reminder of our limitations and also the things that are in our power. It teaches us to pick our battles and hone our focus so that we don’t spread our energy too thinly.

Some lessons that Ten of Wands may offer you are:

A lesson in prioritisation and knowing what to put first
A lesson in understanding what your responsibilities are and what they require from you
A lesson in asking for help when we need it
A lesson in our full potential and what we can achieve if we have the right strategy

Ten of Wands as a Redirection

If the Ten of Wands comes up as a redirection then something has to give. We’ve been trying to carry too heavy a load for one person and we need to now figure out how to spread some of that burden in order to finally achieve success.

As a redirection, Ten of Wands could symbolise a need to:

Share the burden instead of struggling to carry it alone
Embrace your personal power in order to push through external barriers
Try a different plan of attack when things feel stagnant

Wands

The wands are our Tarot tool, we see The Magician wielding it in the major arcana and now we are gifted it to do as we see fit. The wands direct us to look at our sense of power, what we desire and our passions. They also help motivate us into action and push us forward.

With the Ten of Wands however, we’re being weighed down by the responsibility, we are struggling with the power that we’ve collected and we need to find a way to ease some of the pressure.

Fire

The wands corresponds with the element of fire. This means it adopts a lot of the traits and properties of fire. This includes burning hot, bright but fast or burning at a slow smoulder. It can also offer endless possibility for creation, but chaos and destruction in equal measure.

With the element of fire, we have to direct the energy into the right areas to avoid things spiralling out of control. Making impulsive decisions falls into this, as well as acts of passion.

Tens

The number ten in the minor arcana, is the finish line, it is the end of this suit’s cycle. In numerology, the number ten is a number of completion.

The number ten can also be reduced down to its single digit number, which is the number one (1+0=1) which is the number of creation. Another way to think of the number ten is by seeing how the two digits within the number could work together. In this case, we have the creative number one working with the endless possibilities of the number of zero.