The Ten of Swords is probably the most dreaded card in the Tarot. The classic Rider-Waite-Smith deck depicts someone lying in a pool of their own blood, pierced head to foot progressively by those ten swords.
If I were to pull this card to gain clarity on the year that’s expiring in a few weeks, I would interpret it as follows: It’s the end of a cycle, in this case, the year, which won’t or already hasn’t ended the way you wanted. And there’s nothing you can do about it.
That may sound very negative with regard to reigniting your creativity, but I think that card is meant to be freeing. Whatever is happening or however it happened, happened. So be gentle with yourself and nurture yourself through it.
Can you just be with whatever that brings up? If you can, that’s where the creative juice is, whatever your medium or occupation.
With that kind of grace, you can go ahead and do your best to tie up loose ends before the holidays, and not make it mean anything about yourself if you can’t. Staying the course when things haven’t worked out instead of giving in to internal or external shame and blame takes an extraordinary amount of grace.
That kind of grace is what is called for as the year ends. I invite us all to practice that grace right now. Calmly look at what was, and what wasn’t, and during that autopsy of the past 11 months, see whether themes or patterns emerged. What have you noticed or learned?
You may find out that you’ve been putting a lot of energy into projects that seem ‘right’ but that you are not that invested in. You may recognize risks not taken that would have been more in the direction of what lights you up. You may discover new themes for your work that are finally ready to emerge but weren’t a year ago.
Contemplation and slowing down are what will allow you to generate new approaches and new ideas. (If you can’t avoid working under pressure, you still need to make a point of slowing down internally so as not to implode.)
That’s what December is for: relaxed reassessment, not rushing to beat the clock.
And you don’t have to do it alone. Want more specific help with that process?
Check out my Annual Planning and Strategy Session and book one with me. It’ll be great, I promise!
