Ten of Swords & Intersectionality
In a State of Collapse
The Ten of Swords is one of the more difficult cards in tarot. The popular Smith Waite card depicts a death of sorts. A final act. In tarot, the nines are a culmination, and the tens are just too much. We are in the suit of the element of air. The mind, intellect, communication, curiosity, words, learning, media, rumination, depression, anxiety, and fear, all fall under the sword's umbrella. The Ten of Swords corresponds to the end of Gemini season astrologically. T. Susan Chang in her book 36 Secrets describes the eight, nine, and ten of swords sequence in tarot as frustration, anxiety, and collapse.
We are in a constant state of collapse. Of empire, U.S. hegemony, and a unipolar “rules based order”. The Ten of Swords depicts the consequences of white, cisgender, patriarchal capitalism. In a society based on multiple forms of oppression and violence, state harm is inevitable. Power over is violent. The intersectionality of these oppressions is made visible in the Ten of Swords.
American civil rights activist and scholar of critical race theory Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw originated the theory of intersectionality. In 1989 she published a paper in the University of Chicago Legal Forum titled “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex.” In the paper Crenshaw argues that the legal system’s narrow view of discrimination demonstrated the “conceptual limitations of...single-issue analyses”. We are multivalent human beings. Because we live under hierarchical systems of power, there are folks who experience marginalization and state harm on multiple fronts. Rather than focus on one construct at a time like race, gender, or class, intersectionality argues that these various forms of oppression are not mutually exclusive or separable in actual lived experience. Society is structured by interlocking systems of oppression that act like a matrix, where different forms of inequality are interconnected and they reinforce each other.
Privilege also exists within this matrix, not as a singular entity, but as a complex web of advantages that are distributed unevenly based on intersecting identities. Intersectionality demonstrates that individual experiences of discrimination or oppression are unique and overlapping.
The Ten of Swords as an individual who has been harmed by these interlocking systems of oppression. In a white, patriarchal, able bodied, cisgender dominant society, any identity that falls outside of those deemed acceptable is like a sword in the back, or several. If you are a woman, then you could experience gender discrimination, if you are a black woman, then you must navigate racial oppression as well. If you are a black, trans woman, then the marginalization of race and gender, coupled with the oppression of gender identity and sexual oreientation can be absolutely overwhelming. An assault on identity.
Critiques of terms like intersectionality, privilege, diversity, and inclusion conveniently ignore the superstructure, the economic base of patiarchal, racial capitalism, and the history of violent oppression in the U.S. in favor of a fairytale view of society where we are all treated equitably, and everyone has the same economic advantages. Meanwhile as we navigate through this empire in collapse, in its death throes, the acceleration of oppression is everywhere. The swords in our backs are the result of a neoliberal, imperialist, Western ideology that centers those in power who participate in oppression while silencing those who are actually experiencing it.
Folks experience oppression at the ideological, interpersonal, institutional, and internalized levels. Overwhelm is understandable in these conditions.
What we see depicted in the Ten of Swords could be a saturation of the dominant hegemony. Ideology as power. Words as weapons. It’s the mental anguish of oppression and ongoing societal collapse. The exclusion of othering. Dehumanization of the perceived enemy. When your identity becomes suspect, then anyone is a potential danger. When you’re ostracized from society, then every cut hurts deeper. How many times can someone be stabbed in the back by systems that are supposed to offer support and care? What will we sacrifice for our safety? How many little deaths must we die in order to live more freely?
The Ten of Swords is bleeding because they dared to be different. Because they exist outside of the status quo. In resistance. They spoke truth to power. Shined a light on state violence. The Ten of Swords is killing the oppressor within themself. It’s not a comfortable place, but the potential for rebirth is there, especially if they are able to get out from underneath those swords. Autonomy and liberation can help heal the oppressed mind.
What lessons can we learn about intersectionality from the Ten Of Swords?
As U.S. Empire inflicts its Zionist agreassion on Palestine and multiple nations in the Middle East, there are escalating I.C.E. raids here, the disappearing and incarceration of immigrants, militarism and policing is becoming more violent, trans rights are being stripped away, the chronically ill and the disabled are increasingly neglected. Does it behoove us to just roll over and play dead right now? How are these various forms of imperialist violence, discrimination, and marginalization linked within the matrix of our society? If we ignore the intersectionality of our oppressions, then how long before the state will exert its power in new and gruesome ways?
Removing the sword from the back of another is a metaphor for moving towards dismantling harmful systems. Tolerating the swords, or ignoring them in the hopes that they will just go away will lead to further abuses of power.
We can organize with folks who are experiencing intersecting forms of oppression. Listen to them. Center their voices. Find new ways to protect the most marginalized.
The Ten of Swords invites us to explore the crossroads of intersectionality, and learn from those who are experiencing various forms of oppression. Remember that the sword cuts both ways. Your privilege is probably dependent on someone else’s demise.
Centering my astrology and tarot practice in the actual lived material conditions of an empire in collapse is my way of empowering others. To acknowledge the swords. You’re not going to be able to live your best life, or help others, if you can’t see what is pinning the most oppressed down. Your liberation is bound up with mine.
If the Ten of Swords is the pain, mental anguish, and violence of intersecting, escalating oppressions, then it’s also the rebirth of our personal and collective liberation. Let’s get ourselves free together.
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