Ten of Wands: tarot meaning, upright and reversed

A figure bends beneath ten staffs while approaching a town.

Upright

burden · responsibility

An undertaking has accumulated more weight than one person can easily carry.

Reversed

release · overload

A burden needs redistribution before obligation becomes collapse.

In a reading

The position gives this card a particular task: a description of the situation, a challenge, or guidance. Read its image and meaning alongside the other cards and the question that brought them together.

Golden Dawn correspondence

Saturn in Sagittarius, 20–30 degrees. This is the attribution in Book T.

Sources

A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot. These notes are original interpretations of the Waite–Smith imagery, informed by that text.