The Ten of Swords depicts a figure enduring the sting of no less than ten knives in her back.
It is a visual image of what it feels like to discover we have been deceived by someone we trusted. Betrayal is going to happen to each of us at some point over the course of a human life. The act of betraying another might emanate from an intentional desire to do harm or just simple, thoughtless, selfishness. Either way, the experience of facing betrayal is generally painful and often traumatic.
She appears lifeless because betrayal has marked the permanent end of one way of being in the world although the next chapter is yet to be conceived.
The figure we see in the picatrix is down, but not dead. She appears lifeless because betrayal has marked the permanent end of one way of being in the world though the next chapter is yet to be conceived. We might understand the biblical myth of Jesus of Nazareth to offer the same metaphor of death as a response to betrayal. Judas Iscariot is a close friend and confidante to Jesus, yet he is anything but loyal. Judas accepts thirty pieces of silver in exchange for identifying his friend with a kiss. The poetry of a kiss on the cheek allows us to understand the intimacy, the trust that existed between the men. Trust is the distinguishing feature of betrayal, it is what separates the experience from mere violation.
Trust is the distinguishing feature of betrayal, it is what separates the experience from mere violation.
The kiss of Judas points the Sanhedrin’s to their target whom they capture and torture upon a cross, as was the common form of punishment during the era. Jesus was considered as good as dead when he was released from his torment by those who loved him and placed in a tomb where he spent three full days recreating himself and fomenting his plans for how he would conduct himself moving forward. His days in the tomb were a liminal period, same as what we find in the Ten of Swords, a span of time that allows for the necessary travel between a world wherein we thought we knew whom to trust and the opening of the new life in which we now know better.
May we forgive ourselves for the experiences every one of us is destined to know.
12/28/21
Michelle Embree
www.michelleembree.com
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