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The Rider-Waite- Smith Tarot- Ten of Wands depicts a person oppressed by the weight of the ten wands/staves that they attempt to carry. The image seems simple enough. However, this is a card of many significances making some of the readings hard to harmonize. Simply put, it is oppression, but also fortune, gain, and can be any kind of success of these concepts as we must oppress our creativity to focus on one goal. The fertile Staves or Wands represent the energy that produces these things. However, it is also a card of illusion, disguise, and perfidy. There is often a great burden imposed on one by possessions; where one thinks they own them, but they are really owned by them.

In the Erotic Tarot of Milo Manara, a picture of sexual oppression is used to express the Oppression of Women by the Patriarch. In the past the "rule of the Patriarch" has sentenced women to mere chattel and not even as valuable as livestock. The rules of the Patriarch made women "sexual slaves of Men" and even denied them the right to enjoy sexual activity, even self-pleasuring. In some extreme cases, they were even castrated by having the clitoris removed. In this last century, woman have been gaining back their "human" status. Although the process has been slow, the Matriarch is beginning to return to the Wisdom of mankind. In Tarot, Wands or Fire, is sexual energy and considered phallic. Hence, the feminine magnetic energy is being oppressed here, so that the Patriarch can rule her body. Hence, the arcane meaning of the card is female "sexual energy" being contained by oppression, so that it can be controlled.

This image implies cruelty, malice, over-bearing force, lots of energy being applied and injustice. Much as a slave forced to do extremely hard labor.

Again, a very mundane version of the most complex Western Hermetic Qabalistic Tree of Life Sephiroth-Malkuth (the simplest being Kether). On the Tree of Life, the number 10 refers to Malkuth-the Earth, and it is the most crystallized/coagulated form of the alchemical element Fire. This is Fire (male) in its lowest form (called "crystalized light"), so it is without a guiding intelligence; thus, it is in its most destructive form of materialism. It is up to us to give this powerful force guidance, as it is the groundwork of all Passions, lust, and desires, which have been known to "run-a-muck" in the survival mind of the subconscious.

The 10's show fixed and completed force. This is similar to the 9's of Tarot, in which a matter is thoroughly and determined, instead the Tens ultimate it and carry it out, ending a cycle. Hence, the cycle of oppression is coming to an end.

During a reading, if the 10 OF WANDS or 10 of Fire is thrown for the querent, it is implied that:

• They must stop their present self-repression and create a new motion; or if it shows in the reading that someone or something is responsible for the querent's oppression, the querent must leave, and change.
•  There is an overbearing strength being placed on the personality that will make it fight for its survival, precipitating revenge, and injustice in the process.
•  Will applied to control over others for selfish and material ends.
• Generosity, self-sacrifice and often disinterest. But caution must be applied once again, as often self-sacrifice becomes Altruism, which is another form of Superiority, Control, and Martyrdom, which become oppression in their own rite. 

• If the 10 of Wands is reversed, it suggests:
•  Ill will, lying, malice, slander, envy, obstinacy, swiftness in evil.
•  Violence as a form of sexuality.
• Defensiveness and irritability resulting when a plan is badly organized or diffused. 

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Traditional Tarot Card Comparisons blog (Rider-Waite-Smith)

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