✳ Pearl Arcana Draw cards
Ten of Wands

A 78-card digital tarot drawn in the tones of nacre and dancheong.

Ten of Wands

Burden, overload, responsibility, carrying too much, final effort.

Keywords · Upright

  • burden
  • overload
  • responsibility
  • carrying too much
  • final effort

Keywords · Reversed

  • release
  • delegation
  • putting burdens down
  • collapse
  • learning to say no

Release, delegation, putting burdens down, collapse, learning to say no.

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How this deck reads it

The figure bent almost double under ten staves bound to the back is a composition that transposes the layered railing pattern of dancheong into a human silhouette. The piled layers of lines show the weight of the burden through form itself. All the ends of the staves point forward, so that although the burden lies behind, the gaze and the direction of travel are already toward the destination.

The lit hut is painted in the only warm color on the canvas, and the road before it is made by attaching long strips of mother-of-pearl so that it reflects the moonlight. The full moon and the hut's light contrast as lights of different temperatures, and the warmth of color hints that the place toward which the figure carries the heavy burden is not far.

Artwork

A man dressed in hanbok, bent at the waist with ten staffs bundled and carried on his back, walks the road toward a house with his head bowed. A full moon hangs behind clouds.

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