Let’s compare the Ten of Wands!
The Ten of Wands is the conclusion of the journey through the Suit of Wands. In the Santa Muerte deck on the left, the Ten of the Suits ends with a butterfly over a background that is color coded to the colors of the Suit. For the Suit of Wands, the color is heavily focused on red, and as we see, there is a red butterfly, flying over an overgrown field of red roses with a castle in the background. For the Tarot of the Divine deck on the right, we see a tree growing from a skull, with ten branches. Knowing the Santa Muerte deck is designed around skeletal figures, it’s a fun parallel to see that the Tarot of the Divine card is also having a macabre focus for this card.
The Tarot of the Divine card is based off a legend from Paraguay, of the Guarani people. This is a group of people who I have not had the pleasure of getting to know previously. This legend is of the Timbo tree, a tree that grew from a grieving father’s love and devotion in his death. Here is a resource for the legend. The tree grew from the side of the man’s head, who spent the rest of his days looking for his missing daughter, by listening to the earth and trying to hear where her footsteps may be. The fruit of the Timbo tree is said to look like an ear, said to be the man’s ear.
The Ten of Wands in the Rider-Waite deck shows a man carrying a bundle of sticks, that looks very similar to the Tarot of the Divine tree. The Ten of Wands is meant to come as a sign of working hard, or too hard. However, Tens are the sign of the completion of journeys. With Wands, our journey through learning ourselves through actions in the world comes to a conclusion. This can mean an action we’ve had in the past has served it’s purpose and we no longer need it, or that our actions have brought us to the next chapter in our life.
While the traditional Rider-Waite states that the Ten of Wands is to show taking on too much work without help, I think that each card can hold it’s own message. For these cards here, we see in the Santa Muerte deck that we have evolved into a beautiful butterfly and are flying over our kingdom, having learned our lessons. In the Tarot of the Divine, we see that in our actions, there can be fruits of our labor, even if they do not benefit us directly. Each card can contain it’s own meanings and stories, even if they are based on the same source.
Head back to the Overview to see more!
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