Minor Arcana, the Wands

Ten of Wands

In the Ten of Wands, drawn by Pamela Colman Smith in 1909, a man bent almost double carries a bundle of ten heavy staffs in his arms. He walks away from us toward a red-roofed house among trees, and the staffs fan out in front of his head, so that his face is hidden.

What Waite wrote it means (1910)

Divinatory meanings: A card of many significances, and some of the readings cannot be harmonized. I set aside that which connects it with honour and good faith. The chief meaning is oppression simply, but it is also fortune, gain, any kind of success, and then it is the oppression of these things. It is also a card of false-seeming, disguise, perfidy. The place which the figure is approaching may suffer from the rods that he carries. Success is stultified if the Nine of Swords follows, and if it is a question of a lawsuit, there will be certain loss.
Reversed: Contrarieties, difficulties, intrigues, and their analogies.

Arthur Edward Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (London, 1911), p. 178. Read it in the chapter

A man oppressed by the weight of the ten staves which he is carrying.

Waite's description of the card, from the same book.

What's in the picture

The bundle. All ten staffs are gathered into one bundle and held upright. Their tops spread out like a fan above his head, and each one ends in a little sprig of leaves. Their feet come together near the ground.
The hidden face. His head is pushed in among the staffs. We see only the back of his fair hair; his face is buried in the bundle, so he cannot see where he is going.
The arms. Both arms wrap around the staffs and hug them to his chest. A full white sleeve puffs out at his shoulder, and one hand grips the staffs low down.
The bent back. His back is bent forward from the hips under a red-orange tunic with a short pleated skirt. Waite describes him as "oppressed by the weight of the ten staves".
The boots. He wears pale hose and red boots laced at the ankle. His back foot is lifted at the heel, caught mid-step.
The house. Ahead of him on the right stands a pale house with a red roof among green trees. He is walking toward it, and it is not far, though he cannot see it.
The ground. The ground is flat and sandy yellow, with no road or path drawn on it. Low trees and bushes line the far edge on both sides, under a clear blue sky.
The trees behind. On the far left, a single small tree stands at the edge of the field, behind him.

The card in brief

In the deck: Card 32 of 78
Arcana: Minor Arcana, Wands
Number: Ten
Element (Golden Dawn): Fire
Astrology (Golden Dawn): Saturn in Sagittarius
Title in Book T: Lord of Oppression
Drawn by: Pamela Colman Smith
Planned by: Arthur Edward Waite
Published: London, William Rider & Son, 1909
Scan: Pam-A printing, c. 1910, Wikimedia Commons

In the old books

Book T (1912)
Four hands holding eight wands crossed as before. A fifth hand holding two wands upright, which traverses the junction of the others. Flames issuant. ♄ and ♐︎.
Cruel and overbearing force and energy, but applied only to material and selfish ends. Sometimes shows failure in a matter, and the opposition too strong to be controlled; arising from the person's too great selfishness at the beginning. Ill-will, levity, lying, malice, slander, envy, obstinacy; swiftness in evil and deceit, if ill dignified. Also generosity, disinterestedness and self-sacrifice, when well dignified.
Book T, “A Description of the Cards of the Tarot”, The Equinox I.8 (London, 1912), pp. 187–188. See the source
Papus (1892)
Uncertainty in the management of the Enterprise.
Papus, The Tarot of the Bohemians, tr. A. P. Morton (London, 1892), p. 312. See the source