Tarot's New Card - The Ten of Pencils

I have friends who believe in various types of magic. I try to keep my lack of belief in irrational superstitions from interfering with these friendships¹. I figure if others will be nonjudgmental about my religious beliefs, I will do my best to be nonjudgmental about theirs.

My friend R is big on personality and life analysis through Astrology (both Zodiac and Chinese Year), Eneagrams, Meyers-Briggs and Tarot. She told me once that her totem card is the Ten of Swords. The Ten of Swords typically has a picture of a man on the ground with ten swords sticking out of his back.

You'd figure this is not a good card to have as your totem, but these magic systems always have a dark side and a bright side².

The dark side of the ten of cards is the fairly obvious: "Holy cow³, you've got ten swords in your back! You are seriously messed up!" and the somewhat less obvious: "But come on, ten swords? Isn't that over doing it? Wouldn't one sword have been enough to kill you? Nobody likes a martyr you know."

The bright side? "Hey, there's nowhere to go but up! Things are going to improve! "

I've been trying to come up with a way to give R something that would remind her that better days are on their way. My first brainstorm was a ten of swords knifeblock. But when I tested that idea with a focus group I was told it was too creepy.

Here you have my solution - the Ten of Swords pencil holder:

• Pencil Crayons from Big Buds: $1
• Little Doll from the Buck or Two: $2
• Piece of scrap wood
• Photoshopped background image colour printed and glued to wood
• 2 pushpins
• Some old linen scraps

Post Script: R received her pencil holder early this week. At first she thought it was a voodoo doll, but I'd included a handy card with photo describing its true function. She likes it:

Thank you for the lovely gift! And when I pull a card on my birthday this year, I'm willing to bet it won't be the 10 of swords but something happy like the 3 of cups.⁴

Links:

• A more "official" description of the ten of swords;
• the 3 of cups;
• image for base; and
• a word doc with card if you make one of these for someone.

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¹ Phrases like "irrational superstition", "ludicrous nonsense", and "complete bullcrap" turn out to be counter-productive to this goal, but sometimes, you have to be honest about what you're thinking, right?

² Like if you were born in the Chinese Year of the Rat, you'd figure that would be all bad, but no: "Clever and quick-witted, the Rat of the Chinese Zodiac is utterly disarming to boot". Of course, it's not all good: "Behind that sweet smile, though, Rats are keen and unapologetic promoters of their own agendas" [cite]

³ My apologies to those of you whose religious superstitions make phrases like "holy cow" offensive.

⁴ "The Three of Cups can stand for a mood or experience that makes you feel like dancing and singing."