The Ten of Swords as Intentions: To End It, Completely

Written by Chaya the Medium.

The Ten of Swords as intentions is a plan to be done. Here is what I would read in it, upright and reversed, and why it is final without being cruel.

If you want the short answer, I would read the Ten of Swords as intentions that are finished. In an intentions position the card suggests the person means to end what is between you fully, or has already decided it is over and intends nothing further. It is the clearest ending in the Minor Arcana. It is not a plan to hurt you. It is a plan to be done, and the dawn in the picture is theirs.

This is the figure face down with ten swords and the light on the horizon. They intend no more. They intend the morning.

The Ten of Swords upright as intentions

Tina Gong's the Ten of Swords guide at Labyrinthos associates the upright card with failure, collapse, betrayal and rock bottom. When the card lands in a position that asks what someone intends toward you, I read those meanings as the shape of their plan rather than as a promise about what they will do. Feelings and intentions are different questions; the Ten of Swords as feelings covers the first, and this page covers the second. The general card meanings at Biddy Tarot are a useful second reference.

Upright, I read the Ten of Swords as a person who intends completion: to close the door, to stop, to give nothing further because there is nothing further to give. The intention is final and it is often a relief to them. If they intend to speak, it will be to end. If they intend silence, the silence is the ending.

What I would not read into it is anger, which would be a different card. The figure in the picture is not fighting. They have stopped, and stopping is their whole intention.

What the card does not tell you

The card does not confirm the ending was your fault, that the person will not soften later, or that the dawn in the picture includes you. No card lets a reader see another person's plans. What a card can do is describe the kind of intention that fits the person's behaviour, and give you something to check against what they actually do.

The Ten of Swords reversed as intentions

Reversed, the Ten of Swords as intentions describes an ending refused or an ending survived: a person who intends to get up from the collapse and may or may not intend you in what follows, or one who will not let the thing be over and intends to keep it alive one sword at a time.

In your own question, ask whether the person seems to be recovering and slowly warmer, or whether they keep reopening the ending as though it had not happened. A reversed card as intentions is a prompt to compare what is said with what is done, not a diagnosis of bad faith.

The Ten of Swords as an ex's intentions

Asked about an ex, the Ten of Swords as intentions says what it says: they intend it to be over, fully, and have nothing left to put toward it. That is painful to read and it is the card that most reliably ends the waiting. The dawn is for both of you, if you let it be. My guide to asking a psychic whether an ex will come back explains what a reading can and cannot say about that question.

The Ten of Swords as a new person's intentions

For someone new, this card usually describes someone who has just come out of a devastating ending and intends nothing toward anyone yet. Their intentions toward you are not in question because they do not exist; what exists is the aftermath. Give them the dawn.

What their intentions look like in action

Look for flatness and finality: not angry, not sad exactly, just done. They do not engage with the past because for them it is closed. A Ten of Swords intention looks like absence, and it is an honest absence rather than a game.

What to record before drawing again

Keep three short notes: the question you asked, what the person has ended, and what you will do with your own dawn. The third note is the only one that moves.

For comparison, the Three of Swords as intentions and Death as intentions describe different intentions. The the Ten of Swords card meaning page covers the card in full, and the Ten of Swords as timing and the Ten of Swords as a yes or no cover the other questions people most often ask of it. For a personal interpretation, my guide to a love psychic reading online explains how I work, and the three-card tarot listing and customer reviews are worth reading before deciding whether to order.